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 %)-HW)-]Q^
 
 Self and Sex Series 
 for men 
 
 BY SYLVANUS STALL, D.D. 
 
 i. " What a Young Boy Ought to Know." 
 
 2. " What a Young Man Ought to Know." 
 
 3. " What a Young Husband Ought to Know." 
 
 4. " What a Man of Forty-five Ought to Know." 
 
 PRICE Si. 00 EACH 
 
 FOR WOMEN 
 
 BY MRS. MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M.D. 
 
 AND 
 
 MRS. EMMA F. A. DRAKE, M.D. 
 
 1. " What a Young Girl Ought to Know." 
 
 2. " What a Young Woman Ought to Know." 
 
 3. " What a Young Wife Ought to Know." 
 
 4. " What a Woman at Forty-five Ought to Know." 
 
 PRICE $1.00 EACH 
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 THE VIR PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1601 Real Estate Trust Building, - Philadelphia 
 
 IN ENGLAND 
 
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 7 Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus, - London, E.C. 
 
 Price, 4s. 
 
 IN CANADA 
 
 WILLIAM BRIGGS 
 
 2 9-33 Richmond Street West, - Toronto, Ontario
 
 SYLVANUS STALL, D.D.
 
 PRICE 4 s. NET 
 TURITY AND TRUTH 
 
 Self and Sex Seiies 
 
 What a Man of Forty- 
 Five Ought to Know 
 
 BY 
 
 SYLVANUS STALL, D.D. 
 
 Author of " What a Young Bov Ought to Know," " What 
 a Young Man Ought to Know," " What a Young 
 Husband Ought to Know," " Methods of Church 
 Work" " Five-Minute Object Sermons to Chil- 
 dren" "Bible Selections for Daily Devo- 
 tion" etc., Associate Editor of 
 the "Lutheran Observer" 
 
 THE VIR PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 7, IMPERIAL ARCADE, LUDGATE CIRCUS 
 
 LONDON, E. C. 
 
 LADELPHIA 
 
 
 TORONTO 
 
 U. S. A. 
 
 
 CANADA 
 
 
 > * 
 
 ■ i > j 
 J ' J 3 i 
 
 1
 
 Copyright, 1901, by SYLVANUS STALL 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England 
 
 Protected by International copyright in Great Britain and all 
 her colonies, and, under the provisions of the Berne Con- 
 vention, in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Swit- 
 zerland, Tunis, Hayti, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, 
 and Norway 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 [printed in the united states] 

 
 
 7$ 
 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 No apology is needed for the issuing 
 of this book. Men of forty-five are 
 generally as ignorant of the changes 
 "^ which attend those who enter upon 
 ■£ that period, which has been aptly called 
 ^ " the youth of old age," as boys of 
 fourteen are of the changes which at- 
 tend the period of adolescence. Most 
 men of forty have not so much as 
 learned that the physical nature of the 
 ^ male undergoes any change at the 
 period of middle life. Some know 
 * something of the physical change in 
 v^ the life of woman, but of its great sig- 
 x\ nificance, they are largely ignorant. 
 Knowing so little of these changes, the 
 V man of middle life becomes a mystery 
 to himself, and fails to bring to his 
 wife that intelligence and sympathy 
 which would so much mitigate the 
 trials and struggles through which she 
 passes during the climacteric period. 
 
 5
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 The modifications in the physical na- 
 ture of man which are named in this 
 volume do not all come at forty-five or 
 even fifty years of age to men who are 
 in good bodily vigor. However, they 
 may, and oftentimes do, come to men 
 at a somewhat earlier period ; and that 
 all men may be duly apprised of the 
 changes which are sure to come to 
 them sooner or later, we have in the 
 following pages usually addressed our- 
 selves to men of about this age. 
 
 While the consideration of the 
 changes which come at middle life 
 and the infirmities which are likely to 
 attend the closing period of life is de- 
 pressing in its extended contemplation, 
 we have sought, nevertheless, to pre- 
 sent such hopeful and helpful features 
 of this important subject as are calcu- 
 lated to bring inspiration an<^ benefit 
 to those who enter upon its changes 
 with intelligence and wisdom. 
 
 We cannot at this time deny our- 
 selves the pleasure of thanking the 
 thousands of noble men and women 
 everywhere whose hearty commenda-
 
 PREFACE. 7 
 
 tions and helpful cooperation have al- 
 ready secured for the books in this 
 series a circulation of nearly one hun- 
 dred thousand copies. 
 
 "When fifteen years of age God placed 
 in the author's mind the primal thought 
 out of which this series has grown. 
 Twenty-five years ago the author cov- 
 enanted to undertake this work, and 
 this fourth book in the series is sent 
 out with a sense of profound gratitude 
 to Him who has led step by step to- 
 ward the completion of this difficult 
 and delicate undertaking. 
 
 Sylvanus Stall. 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa., U. S. A., 
 January 24, 1901.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 WHAT A MAN OF FORTY-FIVE OUGHT 
 TO KNOW CONCERNING HIMSELF. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 PHYSICAL CHANGES IN MEN AT MIDDLE LIFE. 
 
 The periods of seven years in human life. — 
 Ten of these periods make the biblical 
 " three score and ten. " — Intelligence suited 
 to each period. — Prevalent ignorance con- 
 cerning the "change of life " in men. — Sad 
 results of such ignorance. — Reasons for 
 change in physical life in man stated, . 19-25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 EVIDENCES OP CHANGE. 
 Prevalent skepticism concerning the climac- 
 teric in men at middle life. — Old men who 
 become fathers. — Old men who vaunt them- 
 selves after they have lost all sexual power. 
 — Vicious men tantalized by corrupt mind 
 when old. — Husband and wife sexually 
 complemental. — Together they constitute 
 a reproductive unit. — Masculine and femi- 
 nine natures harmonized and adjusted each 
 to the other. — Corresponding changes take 
 place in both. — Less marked in man. — The 
 mating instinct universal. — Sexual inclina- 
 tion of male and female responsive in activ- 
 ity and repose. — Harmonious waxing in 
 early life. — Harmonious waning in middle 
 life. — The age at which they occur, . 27-37 
 9
 
 10 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE CHANGE. 
 
 The climacteric of middle life and period 
 of adolescence contrasted. — Evidences of 
 change at middle life. — Signilicance of gray 
 hairs. — Slight lapses of memory. — Effect 
 upon the sight. — Waste and repair. — The 
 teeth. — Diminished powers of endurance. — 
 Sexual desire diminishes. — Manifested at 
 longer intervals. — Enlargement of the pros- 
 tat e gland. — How it manifests itself. — At 
 what period these changes occur. — How de- 
 layed in their manifestation, . . 39-45 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE TESTIMONY OF MEDICAL MEN. 
 
 Ohservant men of fifty need no testimony con- 
 cerning climacteric or "change of life." — 
 Evidence only needed for younger men. — 
 The uniform testimony of medical author- 
 ities. — James Foster Scott, M. D., on the 
 climacteric changes in men and women. — 
 Statement of Dr. Lyman B. Sperry. — The 
 strong statements of Dr. William Acton, the 
 leading English authority. — The testimony 
 of Dr. J. H. Kellogg.— What Dr. George H. 
 Napheys says in his " Transmission of Life." 
 — The facts universally admitted. — Ques- 
 tions of future well-being to be considered 
 in other chapters, .... 47-57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 COMPENSATIONS. 
 
 Mental benefits which attend and follow the 
 sexual hush in men. — Purer mind and 
 sweeter spirit. — Being able to look sympa- 
 thetically both backward and forward. — 
 Sense of relief from perils past. — The changes 
 in men more gradual and less severe than in
 
 CONTENTS. 11 
 
 women. — The changes in men fit them to 
 sympathize somewhat with women. — Phys- 
 ical and intellectual force of many men not 
 ahated. — After sexual modification many 
 men are at their best. — Time and experience 
 often open their richest treasures to men of 
 middle life and beyond. — The statement 
 illustrated, 59-68 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MODERATION ENJOINED. 
 
 Effects in different men of the sexual hush. — 
 Moderation necessary in all instances. — 
 Effect of prolonged mental effort. — Of long 
 continued physical effort. — Effect of anxiety 
 and worry. — Dangers from lawsuits. — The 
 victims of social exactions. — Importance of 
 adequate rest and sleep. — Some helpful 
 suggestions concerning insomnia, . 69-75 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 MODERATION EMPHASIZED. 
 
 Far-reaching effects of sexual excess in middle 
 life. — Coition followed by longer periods of 
 lassitude. — Nature thus sounding her warn- 
 ings. — Moderation for husband's own well- 
 being and that of wife. — Character of the 
 moderation as shown by medical authori- 
 ties. — Dr. William Acton, of London, 
 quoted. — Experience in middle life teaches 
 moderation. — Vital exuberance needed for 
 the transmission of life. — Testimony of Dr. 
 M. Parise of France. — Changed character of 
 love at middle life. — Statements of Cicero 
 and Plato on moderation. — The strong 
 statements of Doctor Napheys. — Other med- 
 ical men quoted. — Nature's punishment of 
 libidinous old men. — Some humiliating pic- 
 tures presented by medical men. — Sowing 
 to the flesh and reaping corruption, . 77-92
 
 12 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 VIRILITY — HOW DESTROYED, HOW PRESERVED. 
 
 Mutual dependence of bodily vigor and viril- 
 ity. — Development of muscular strength vs. 
 preservation of nervous force. — How virile 
 power is prematurely sacrificed. — Sexual 
 excess. — Relation of food to virile power. — 
 Effects of stimulants. — Effects of bodily dis- 
 ease. — Imperfect mastication of food. — In- 
 sufficient sleep. — Importance of exercise and 
 recreation. — Cycling and horseback riding. 
 — Defective saddles. — Cheerful companion- 
 ship. — Importance of well-chosen occupa- 
 tion. — The comforting view for men of mid- 
 dle life to take of physical changes, . 93-106 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS. 
 
 Desire not to alarm or depress the reader. — 
 Many infirmities avoided by intelligence. — 
 Relation of moderation to disorders of later 
 life. — Physical and mental vigor for later 
 years. — Why women are less subject to in- 
 firmities and live longer than men. — Sub- 
 conscious mind more regnant in woman. — 
 Physical infirmities which are due to vari- 
 ous and dissimilar uses. — Insanity in 
 men. — Genito-urinary diseases. — Relation 
 to venereal diseases. — Seeking competent 
 and reliable medical counsel, . . 107-123 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ENLARGEMENT OF THE PROSTATE. 
 
 General prevalence among older men. — How 
 it manifests itself. — Hesitation in begin- 
 ning to void the bladder. — Reduced force of 
 st nam. — Location and function or office of 
 the prostate. — Conditions which attend its 
 enlargement. — Relation of the prostate 
 gland to mental trouble. — Cause of enlarge-
 
 CONTENTS. 13 
 
 nient. — Irritation of the bladder. — The sen- 
 ior Doctor Gross quoted. — Precautionary 
 measures. — The. author's experience and 
 method by which he secured a gratifying 
 measure of relief, .... 125-144 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF WEN OF MIDDLE LIFE. 
 
 The period ordained by nature for marriage. 
 — Question of marriage at middle life, a 
 complex one. — Disparities of age, culture, 
 position, etc. — Conditions which follow 
 where one is young and the other has passed 
 the climacteric period. — Considerate views 
 of Doctor Acton. — Continuance of virile 
 power in old men. — Diminution of sexual 
 inclination and loss of erectile power. — The 
 primal purpose of marriage. — The right of 
 children to be well born. — Character of 
 animals the product of old sires and dams. 
 — Physical, mental and moral character of 
 children of aged parents. — Propriety of mar- 
 riages induced by other than physical con- 
 siderations.— Marriages which are justifi- 
 able. — Dr. Dio Lewis' letter to rich man of 
 sixty-six about to marry frivolous girl of 
 eighteen. — Important advice of various 
 physicians quoted, .... 145-173 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE YEARS BEYOND. 
 
 The man at forty-five determines what the 
 man at eighty shall be. — A genial, com- 
 panionable old age possible to all. — Grow- 
 ing old beautifully.- — Importance of well- 
 defined purpose to keep strong and bright. 
 — The principles of Chauncey M. Depew. — 
 The choice of exercise. — Gladstone greater 
 at eighty than at fifty. — "Weak bodies com- 
 mand, strong bodies obey. — Napoleon's 
 view of physical strength. — Never too old
 
 14 CONTENTS. 
 
 to hegin physical culture. — Better to begin 
 early. — Illustrations of men of power in ad- 
 vanced years. — William Cullen Bryant's 
 mode of life. — Exercise in doors and out of 
 doors, 175-189 
 
 PAKT II. 
 
 WHAT A MA1ST OF FORTY-FIVE OUGHT 
 TO KNOW CONCERNING HIS WIFE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 REPELLENT PEOPLE AND REPELLENT PERIODS. 
 
 Husband should be intelligent concerning his 
 wife for his own good. — For her comfort 
 and well-being also. — Reproduction the 
 great primal purpose in the institution of 
 marriage. — The strength and nature of the 
 amative inclination. — Repellent people, or 
 people devoid of sexual inclination. — Ab- 
 sence of amativeness recognized by children. 
 — Advantages and disadvantages of such 
 persons. — The repellent periods of attractive 
 people. — Why repellent at menstrual period. 
 — Why repellent after conception and dur- 
 ing period of gestation. — Universal homage 
 due and paid to expectant motherhood — 
 Reproach of wives who refuse motherhood. 
 — Nature's method for securing undisturbed 
 maternity. — The third and great repellent 
 period, 193-208 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CHANGE OF LIFE IN WOMAN. 
 
 Two great changes in the physical life of 
 woman. — The menopause or "change of 
 life." — Regarded with apprehension. — The 
 menopause often brings blessings. — Con- 
 serves physical powers for good of individ- 
 ual. — Husband and wife complemental part
 
 CONTENTS. 15 
 
 of complete reproductive units. — Both parts 
 change at corresponding period. — Disap- 
 pearance of menstruation only an outward 
 manifestation. — Changes in function of the 
 ovaries. — The menstrual phenomenon ex- 
 plained and illustrated. — The reason for its 
 cessation made plain.— The age at which the 
 ' ' change of life," may be expected, . 209-220 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 HOW TO MEET THE MENOPAUSE. 
 
 Importance of preparing for the menopause. — 
 Not a period of suffering to all.— Effects upon 
 different temperaments.— Every woman a 
 law unto herself. — Importance of occupa- 
 tion. — Freedom from exacting demands. — 
 Surroundings.— Diet.— Effects of Stimu- 
 lants.— Importance of physical culture. — 
 Constipation.— Fresh air. — Deep breathing. 
 — Relief secured by self-control. — Impor- 
 tance of sexual repose. — Sexual inclination 
 diminishes and eventually disappears. — Ab- 
 normal cases. — Duration of stress at change 
 of life, 221-233 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE BIENOPAUSE. 
 
 Menstrual manifestations. — Other manifesta- 
 tions enumerated. — Mental composure as a 
 means of relief.— Other means. — No grounds 
 for serious apprehensions. — Mortality of 
 men from forty to fifty greater than that of 
 women. — The discomforts are not all im- 
 aginary. — The many ills which women suf- 
 fer at the climacteric— "Queer feeling in 
 the head." — Insomnia and mental depres- 
 sion. — Hysteria. — The many demands upon 
 husband for patience and sympathy. — Man- 
 ifestations of aversion to husband. — Turn- 
 ing against her children and best friends. —
 
 16 CONTENTS. 
 
 Charging husband as being the author of 
 all she suffers, 235-245 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ATTENDANT PHYSICAL CHANGES. 
 
 Change in physical form of woman at meno- 
 pause. — Tending to masculine characteris- 
 tics. — Cause of increase in size and weight. 
 — Growth of hair upon the face. — Modifica- 
 tion in the voice. — Hot flushes. — Hemor- 
 rhage. — Tumors of the womb. — Cancers and 
 abnormal growths. — Their cause. — Diseases 
 of the kidneys. — Symptoms in fifty-two 
 climacteric cases classified. — Changed con- 
 dition of womb and vagina. — Consequent 
 changes in nervous system. — Disappearance 
 of sexual sensation and desire. — Similar 
 changes in men. — Desires of husband and 
 wife harmonized. — The period of physical 
 change the doorway to a larger manhood 
 and womanhood, .... 247-260 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 MENTAL MANIFESTATIONS DURING THE MENO- 
 PAUSE PEEIOD. 
 
 Effect of the menopause upon the mind. — 
 Loss of interest, increased irritability. — The 
 woman becomes suspicious of herself and 
 others. — Effect upon the imagination and 
 the moral nature. — A case before a class of 
 medical students. — How they perplex their 
 pastors. — Symptoms of moral depravity. — 
 Need of intelligence upon part of husband 
 and others. — The gentle woman transformed 
 into a terror. — Arrays herself against hus- 
 band and best friends. — Dissatisfied with 
 everything. — The period when families go 
 to pieces. — Insanity among men and women 
 at climacteric. — Views of medical authority. 
 — Character of hospitals for mental sick- 
 ness, 261-284
 
 PART I. 
 
 What a Man of Forty-five Ought to 
 Know Concerning Himself.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PHYSICAL CHANGES IN MEN AT MID- 
 DLE LIFE. 
 
 The Periods of Seven Years in Human Life. — Ten 
 of These Periods Make the Biblical "Three- 
 Score and Ten." — Intelligence Suited to Each 
 Period. — Prevalent Ignorance Concerning the 
 "Change of Life" in Men.— Sad Kesults of 
 Such Ignorance. — Reasons for Change in Phys- 
 ical Life of Man Stated. 
 
 Human life seems to be divided 
 into periods of about seven years. At 
 seven years of age, the infant enters 
 upon childhood ; at fourteen, the boy 
 enters upon manhood ; at twenty-one, 
 he enters upon the beginnings of the 
 period of maturity. At the seventh 
 period of seven years, or at forty-nine 
 years of age, most men enter upon 
 what has been aptly called " the youth 
 of old age," and at- the end of ten of 
 these periods of seven years, or at 
 " three-score years and ten," the Bible 
 
 19
 
 20 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 sets the allotted period of human life. 
 The length of these periods is affected 
 somewhat by the heredity, health, vi- 
 tality and physical endurance of the 
 individual. There are some who lack 
 in physical endurance, or who mature 
 early in life, and with such these 
 periods may be somewhat shortened, 
 while upon the other hand there are 
 some whose splendid heredity, plrysical 
 endowments, and temperate mode of 
 life secure for them some lengthening 
 of these periods. But, as we have 
 said, these are about the average or 
 normal periods of human life. 
 
 What the infant should know when 
 it has entered upon childhood, and has 
 turned its face toward the developing 
 years is told in the book in this series 
 addressed to young boys, and that 
 knowledge which is essential for the 
 safeguarding of the purity and strength 
 of those who have passed the period of 
 puberty and have entered upon the 
 years which lead up toward mature 
 manhood, has been told in the book 
 addressed to young men, and the in-
 
 31 AN OF FOE TV-FIVE. 21 
 
 formation necessary for those who 
 have attained to years of maturity, 
 and who look forward to marriage and 
 paternity is told in the volume ad- 
 dressed to young husbands. To some 
 it may seem strange that any added 
 information should be necessary to 
 men who have attained the years of 
 middle life, yet our conferences with 
 men between the ages of forty and 
 fifty have developed the fact that men 
 of forty-five are as ignorant of the 
 important changes which have begun 
 or are soon to take place in their 
 bodies, as the boys who approach the 
 period of fourteen are with reference 
 to the changes which attend the tran- 
 sition from bo} T hood to manhood? If, 
 in that important developing period 
 for lack of knowledge, the young boy 
 falls into vice, he measurably blights 
 the strength and power of the years 
 .which lie before him. In like manner, 
 \if through lack of intelligence, at the 
 period of middle life, the man fails to 
 recognize the natural limitations of his 
 powers, if he is unable to understand
 
 22 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 the changes through which his physical 
 nature is passing, or fails to comprehend 
 the revolution which is being wrought 
 in the reproductive nature of his wife, 
 he will be sure to suffer consequences 
 which are far-reaching in their char- 
 acter} 
 
 It is safe to say that very few men 
 who have not had their special atten- 
 tion called to the subject, know any- 
 thing of the character, and much less 
 the reasons why these great changes 
 should take place at this period in the 
 bodies of both men and women. The 
 lack of intelligence at just this juncture 
 has resulted in the wrecking of thou- 
 sands of homes, and the blasting of 
 multitudes of lives that might have 
 continued in blessing and beauty until 
 the allotted period of human life had 
 been fully attained. 
 
 In order to understand what these 
 changes are, why they should take 
 place at this period, and how they 
 affect the entire being, physically, in- 
 tellectually and socially, it is necessary 
 to recall the great purpose which God
 
 STAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 23 
 
 had in mind in endowing man with 
 reproductive power. Instead of con- 
 tinuing to create each individual sep- 
 arately, as in the instance of Adam and 
 Eve, God took His creative power and 
 endowed those whom He had created 
 with jyro-creative power. In order 
 that men and women might not 
 shrink from the burdens, pains and 
 perils which parenthood involves, the 
 reproductive impulse was made suffi- 
 ciently strong to overcome the diffi- 
 culties which would otherwise have 
 greatly hindered, if not wholly pre- 
 vented its exercise, and which would 
 speedily have resulted in the extinction 
 of the human race. 
 
 But it was not sufficient that man 
 should simply perpetuate the race ; he 
 was to be endowed with procreative 
 power only during that period of his 
 existence when he could transmit to 
 his offspring the best physical, intel- 
 lectual and moral endowments. Men 
 and women were to be permitted to 
 beget and bear children up until that 
 age when the expectancy of human life
 
 24 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 still had in reserve for them a sufficient 
 number of years during which their off- 
 spring might enjoy the advantages of 
 home, of nurture, education and de- 
 velopment, and attain to the years of 
 independent manhood and womanhood 
 before the parents had reached the end 
 of the allotted period of human life. 
 
 In order to insure the transmission 
 of the best endowments — and as no 
 person can transmit what he does not 
 possess — the transmission and concep- 
 tion of life is withheld from children 
 during their growing years, and the 
 period of largest f ruitfulness is granted 
 with the early vigor attendant upon 
 the attainment of the full maturity of 
 manhood and womanhood, and this 
 power diminishes gradually as the 
 physical powers wane with increasing 
 years, and is again withdrawn when 
 the climacteric period of middle life 
 has been attained, and disintegration 
 and decay begin their slow and, at 
 first, imperceptible change. Man was 
 not made sentient that he might be 
 sensual, but the reproductive inclina-
 
 3TAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 25 
 
 tion has as its great primal purpose the 
 perpetuity of the human race. When 
 once that great primal purpose has 
 been fully accomplished, the inclina- 
 tion and the power to procreate grad- 
 ually diminishes, and finally wholly 
 disappears.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EVIDENCES OF CHANGE. 
 
 Prevalent Skepticism Concerning the Climacteric 
 in Men at Middle Life. — Old Men Who Become 
 Fathers. — Old Men Who Vaunt Themselves After 
 They Have Lost All Sexual Power. — Vicious Men 
 Tantalized by Corrupt Mind When Old. — Hus- 
 band and Wife Sexually Complemental. — To- 
 gether They Constitute a Reproductive Unit. — 
 Masculine and Feminine Natures Harmonized 
 and Adjusted Each to the Other. — Correspond- 
 ing Changes Take Place in Both. — Less Marked 
 in Man. — The Mating Instinct Universal. — Sex- 
 ual Inclination of Male and Female Responsive 
 in Activity and Repose. — Harmonious Waxing in 
 Early Life. — Harmonious Waning in Middle 
 Life. — The Age at Which They Occur. 
 
 Our knowledge of the ideas preva- 
 lent among most men forces upon us 
 the conviction that what we have said 
 upon the subject of the physical 
 changes which take place in the male 
 at middle life will be received by many 
 men with doubt and misgiving. Most 
 men who are under forty-five years of 
 
 27
 
 28 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 age, and women, who have passed on 
 far beyond that period of life, have oc- 
 casionally learned of men of sixty 
 years of age and upwards, who have 
 married young wives, and after a 
 period of sexual repose and recupera- 
 tion, have become the father of one or 
 more children. Reasoning from these 
 rather exceptional cases, it is perhaps 
 generally supposed by the uninformed 
 that virility uniformally continues in 
 man for an almost indefinite period. 
 Many younger men are also deceived 
 because old men who have led impure 
 lives continue to vaunt their corrup- 
 tion of thought and speech, even after 
 the} r have lost all sexual power, and the 
 uninformed suppose that these senile 
 old men still actualize the evil of 
 which they so boastingly speak. The 
 listener does not always know that the 
 mind continues to grow increasingly 
 corrupt even after sexual power has 
 wholly departed. 
 
 The uninitiated may oftentimes be 
 very greatly deceived as to the actual 
 physical conditions of those who have
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 29 
 
 led a dissolute and vicious life by the 
 additional fact that old men of this 
 class often support a private prostitute, 
 and sometimes even at a considerable 
 cost. But this is frequently done, not 
 only where capacity has long since 
 departed, but where the individual 
 does not even possess erectile power. 
 Such a course can only be understood 
 when we remember that where an in- 
 dividual leads a vicious and corrupt 
 life the mind continues to become in- 
 creasingly debased and polluted as the 
 years go on, even to the end of life ; 
 and it is this fact that acids such awful 
 significance to that wonderful declara- 
 tion in the book of Revelations, where 
 it says, " He that is filthy, let him be 
 filthy still " — teaching that in the 
 next world, as in this, those who are 
 righteous and pure continue in their 
 progression, becoming more pure and 
 more righteous, while those who are 
 vicious become more and more cor- 
 rupt, attaining unto that hideous and 
 repellent degradation which was pic- 
 tured by Doctor Todd and which we
 
 30 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 quoted in the closing paragraphs of 
 the second volume in this series ad- 
 dressed to young men. Something of 
 the aggravating nature of such a cor- 
 rupt mind, to one who has lost all 
 physical power, is pictured in the word 
 tantalize — a word derived from " Tan- 
 talus " the fabulous Phrygian king, 
 who was condemned to stand up to his 
 chin in water, with a tree of fair fruit 
 over his head, both of which, as he at- 
 tempted to allay his hunger or thirst, 
 fled from his approach. 
 
 Multitudes of men who know some- 
 thing of the physical changes which 
 take place in women at the period of 
 middle life are wholly unconscious that 
 somewhat corresponding changes take 
 place in the physical life of man at 
 about the corresponding periotTJ That 
 such should be the case, can be readily 
 understood when we remember that 
 men and women are sexually comple- 
 mental to each other, and that to- 
 gether they constitute a reproductive 
 unit. It is not difficult to understand 
 that that Infinite Wisdom which has
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 31 
 
 so beautifully adapted and adjusted 
 the reproductive natures of man and of 
 woman for the high and holy purposes 
 contemplated in their marriage — in 
 early years equalizing, harmonizing 
 and adjusting each to the other, and 
 preserving the equilibrium through the 
 years for about a quarter of a century — 
 should continue to harmonize and 
 equalize the reproductive nature and 
 impulses of the two individuals who 
 have entered upon marriage at a 
 period of equal maturity. If the wife 
 is to lose her power to conceive and to 
 bear children, it is but reasonable to 
 expect, that the natures, which have 
 during the long years of wedded life 
 been suited to each other as the differ- 
 ent parts of a complex but perfect 
 machine, should now find, both in the 
 husband and in the wife such mutual 
 physical changes as should continue to 
 harmonize their lives during the re- 
 mainder of their days. 
 ^In man the outward manifestations 
 of these physical changes, so far as 
 they relate to the reproductive func-
 
 32 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 tion are not as pronounced as in 
 woman, and whereas the physical and 
 mental stress through which both 
 pass are not so decided or manifest in 
 man as in womanj therefore fewer 
 men, even at forty-five years of age, 
 understand either the changes which 
 await them or the significance of such 
 changes when they do take place. . 
 
 Nor are these the only reasons. Lin 
 their earliest beginnings men are not 
 so likely to discover these changes in 
 themselves, and because oi_the_natural 
 love of prowess and power, men are 
 verf - sTow to confess these changes, 
 even to themselves, and much less to 
 others. The sensual and the vile are 
 further actuated by the love of decep- 
 tion — the deception of themselves and 
 the deception of others.^ Such there- 
 fore continue to boast themselves in the 
 presence of others of evils, the commis- 
 sion of which they have long since lost 
 the capacity to perform. 
 
 The full significance of what we have 
 said in reference to the complemental 
 character of the reproductive nature of
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 33 
 
 the male and female is best understood 
 when we recall the fact that the equal 
 number of male children and female chil- 
 dren born into the world is clearly sug- 
 gestive, apart from any divine com- 
 mand, of the purpose that one man 
 shall be united to one woman in a life- 
 union. Indeed there are those who 
 have made a careful study of the sub- 
 ject, who are ready to declare that the 
 inclination to select and continue faith- 
 ful to a single mate of the opposite sex 
 is innate and universal among birds and 
 beasts and fishes. It is claimed by 
 some who have made a careful study 
 of this matter, that if all domesticated 
 birds and animals were left in their 
 free, native and unrestricted life, even 
 chickens, cats, dogs and all kinds of 
 animals, would naturally mate for life. 
 In reference to this theory it is fair to 
 say that the presumptions are quite 
 strongly in its favor. 
 
 Much plausibility is given to this 
 theory of universal mating, not only 
 from what is seen among the animals 
 and birds that live an unrestricted life, 
 
 3
 
 34 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 but also from the fact, that among 
 these, as in the human family, the num- 
 ber of male and female offspring is 
 about equal. This balance can be ob- 
 served even in the poultry yard. 
 
 The careful observer cannot but 
 have noticed in both plant and animal 
 life such harmonious modifications as 
 suggest similar correspondences in hu- 
 man life. Among plants, fishes, in- 
 sects, birds and animals, there is a har- 
 monized adjustment of reproductive 
 activity — the male and female natures, 
 in their activity and repose, corre- 
 sponding and responding each to the 
 other. "When the reproductive activity 
 has reached the crest of its intensity, 
 it subsides alike in both the male and 
 the female. The anthers and pistils of 
 the plant droop and perish at the same 
 period, after the ovules or seedlets have 
 been fertilized. The male and female 
 fishes pass the climax together, and to- 
 gether pass into a period of preferred 
 repose and recuperation. The waning 
 of the color in the wing of the insect, 
 the fading plumage of the bird, the
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 35 
 
 falling antlers or horns of the deer, 
 the modification and changes in all de- 
 partments of animate nature illustrate 
 how the rising and falling tides of sex- 
 ual activity and quiescence correspond 
 in male and female — waxing until it 
 reaches the greatest fulness of sexual 
 expression and activity, and then a cor- 
 responding waning and recession take 
 place alike in both male and female. 
 
 The flame which burns with the 
 greatest intensity of reproductive ac- 
 tivity after the attainment of the full 
 maturity in the male and the female 
 finds in each a corresponding diminu- 
 tion and fading after a series of return- 
 ing periods of reproductive activity. 
 Most intense at early maturity, less 
 pronounced in the middle period of re- 
 productive life, it then subsides alike 
 in both the male and the female at the 
 period of the later climacteric. 
 
 This law which we find universal in 
 the lower forms of life, dominates all 
 nature and is found also in the repro- 
 ductive nature and activity of man. 
 As in woman, so in man, the reproduc-
 
 36 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 tive activity is most manifest at the 
 period of full maturity. When the 
 emotions wax and wane in woman, 
 they find a corresponding alternation 
 in the sexual nature of man. While 
 there are many who have not been suf- 
 ficiently observant to recognize these 
 monitions and modifications in men, 
 yet they occur, and are noticeable to 
 the attentive and studious observer. 
 
 What is true of the harmonious be- 
 ginnings of sexual emotion in young 
 women and young men, preceding and 
 attending the period of maturity, is 
 also true of the harmonized waning of 
 these powers when middle life is passed 
 and the change of life occurs in women. 
 In the case of women, as we have al- 
 ready said, this change is more mani- 
 fest, but it is none the less real in man ; 
 nor do the observant and honest fail 
 to recognize them in their own bodily 
 emotions and powers. 
 
 yjist at what age these changes may 
 occur will depend largely upon the 
 questions of heredity, bodily vigor, the 
 age at which adolescence and maturity
 
 MAN OF FOE TV- FIVE. 37 
 
 were attained, the degree to which one 
 has avoided all forms of excess, the at- 
 tention given to physical culture and 
 other questions which affect the health 
 and physical powers^j 
 
 /<* »
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE CHANGE. 
 
 The Climacteric of Middle Life and Period of 
 Adolescence Contrasted. — Evidences of Change 
 at Middle Life. — Significance of Gray Hairs. — 
 Slight Lapses of Memory. — Effect upon the Sight. 
 — Waste and Repair. — The Teeth. — Diminished 
 Powers of Endurance. — Sexual Desire Dimin- 
 ishes. — Manifested at Longer Intervals. — En- 
 largement of the Prostate Gland. — How it Mani- 
 fests Itself. — At What Period These Changes 
 Occur. — How Delayed in Their Manifestation. 
 
 It will not be very difficult to con- 
 vince men who have already attained 
 the period of middle life that physical 
 changes of a very marked character 
 take place, but those who are some- 
 what younger and who have labored 
 for years under the misapprehension 
 that the procreative vigor of early 
 youth continues until advanced old 
 age, will be likely to desire some mani- 
 fest evidences that such physical 
 changes do really take place. If the 
 
 39
 
 40 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 changes which take place at the period 
 of the sexual hush in the life of men are 
 as pronounced, even though not as 
 rapid, as those which take place in the 
 physical nature of the boy at the 
 period of puberty, it is natural to in- 
 quire why so little should be known 
 concerning these changes. At the 
 period of adolescence boys are very 
 likely to communicate the information 
 that the new acquisition of manly 
 power has come to them, and thus the 
 fact is likely to be known to boys who 
 have not yet themselves attained to 
 that period. But with men at middle 
 life, the reverse is the case. Many may 
 not have anticipated such a change, and 
 they are very slow to admit the fact, 
 even to themselves, and much less are 
 they willing to communicate such in- 
 formation to their fellows, and espe- 
 cially to those who are still in the full 
 vigor of manhood. 
 
 That such changes do take place, 
 there are sufficient manifestations, 
 some of which are visible to others, 
 and some of which are only known to
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 41 
 
 the individual himself. Among the 
 earlier indications are the streaks of 
 gray which begin to appear, either in 
 the hair or beard, or in both. It might 
 however be unsafe to impute the full 
 significance of this statement to com- 
 paratively young persons of good bodily 
 vigor who are members of families 
 where the different members become 
 prematurely gray. 
 
 At the period of this climacteric 
 in men the memory also becomes less 
 retentive. Perhaps first of all the 
 names of individuals, and especially of 
 strangers, are less easily recalled. 
 Dates and figures do not stick as they 
 once did. It becomes difficult, and 
 in some instances almost impossible to 
 commit to memory that with which 
 the mind was not previously familiar. 
 
 The sight is likely to become meas- 
 urably defective, objects at a distance 
 are seen more clearly, but glasses are 
 needed in order to examine critically 
 objects near at hand, or to enable the 
 individual to read for any considerable 
 period without suffering severe head-
 
 42 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 aches which are felt just in front of the 
 temples and nearly above the eyes. 
 
 It is then also that bodily repair 
 does not take place promptly, as in the 
 earlier years, and consequently the 
 teeth are likely to give indications of 
 more rapid decay; fatigue follows 
 more closely upon muscular and mental 
 effort, and the individual is no longer 
 able to endure either prolonged study 
 or the physical exertions in which he 
 once so much delighted. If given to 
 mental and literary effort, he is no 
 longer able to give himself absorbingly 
 to writing, to study and close investi- 
 gation continuing until late at night, 
 without thereby losing the ability to 
 apply himself for an equal period 
 during the subsequent day. 
 
 At the period of this change in men 
 sexual desire manifests itself at longer 
 intervals, is noticeablv diminished in 
 intensity, and when indulged is fol- 
 lowed by greater and more prolonged 
 fatigue. The effect of strains or in- 
 juries received in earlier years which 
 may have been measurably forgotten
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 43 
 
 are likely to become more manifest. 
 Inherited and acquired physical weak- 
 nesses which may previously have been 
 the occasion of but little thought may 
 now call for careful consideration. 
 
 It is at this period of middle life 
 that the prostate gland perceptibly 
 enlarges and presses upon the urethra 
 at the point where it leaves the blad- 
 der, causing that slowness when begin- 
 ning to urinate, which is noticeable 
 in older men. Instead of being able 
 to expel a strong stream, as in the 
 earlier years, a moment is needed be- 
 fore the urine begins to flow, and the 
 stream is devoid of its former force. 
 This enlargement of the prostate 
 gland is likely to result in the reten- 
 tion of a small amount of sediment at 
 each effort to void the bladder, and 
 this sediment is likely to set up a slight 
 irritation at the neck of the bladder, 
 and with the accumulation of urine 
 during the sleeping hours, causes that 
 sense of discomfort and unrest which 
 makes it necessary for most men of 
 middle life and beyond to empty the
 
 44 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 bladder once or more during the 
 night. 
 
 These are some of the manifestations 
 which indicate that those modifications 
 of the sexual nature which call for early 
 recognition and careful consideration 
 have already taken place, or are at 
 present working themselves out in the 
 physical nature of the individual. 
 
 These manifestations are not nec- 
 essarily all present in the experience 
 of each person, nor do they in different 
 experiences necessarily take place at 
 the same period of life. With men 
 who have lived lives of sexual excess, 
 virile power usually disappears at a 
 much earlier period than in men whose 
 lives have been correct and moderate. 
 Some persons inherit a larger measure 
 of physical power and endurance, while 
 the ancestors of others have bequeathed 
 to them weaknesses, diseases and in- 
 firmities which they may have failed 
 either to overcome or largely to modify. 
 All of the considerations which go into 
 the making up of good health, whether 
 they be questions of diet, exercise,
 
 31 AN OF FORTY- FIVE. 45 
 
 fresh air, bathing or whatever, all 
 have their influence in determining at 
 what stage of one's earthly career these 
 physical changes shall occur. 
 
 A gentleman of fifty odd years of 
 age, realizing in his own experience the 
 modifications which had come to him, 
 in writing to a friend of about the 
 same age who had alwavs been an 
 earnest and indefatigable worker, said : 
 " We are coming to that time of life 
 when the vigor of youth has passed 
 away and when the strength of man- 
 hood is retained by a rather precarious 
 and uncertain tenure, so I am not as- 
 tonished to learn that you are being 
 warned that there is a limit to en- 
 durance." Such monitions and ad- 
 monitions may be expected by all men 
 at about this period of life.
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 TIIE TESTIMONY OF MEDICAL MEN. 
 
 Observant Men of Fifty Need no Testimony Con- 
 cerning Climacteric or " Change of Life." — Evi- 
 dence Only Needed for Younger Men. — The 
 Uniform Testimony of Medical Authorities. — 
 James Foster Scott, M. D., on the Climacteric 
 Changes in Men and Women. — Statement of 
 Dr. Lyman B. Sperry. — The Strong Statements 
 of Dr. William Acton, the Leading English 
 Authority.— The Testimony of Dr. J. H. Kel- 
 logg. — What Dr. George H. Napheys Says in 
 His "Transmission of Life." — The Facts Uni- 
 versally Admitted. — Questions of Future Weil- 
 Being to be Considered in Other Chapters. 
 
 If writing only to observant men of 
 middle life, who have entered upon this 
 period of physical change, it doubtless 
 would be unnecessary to burden these 
 pages Avith any evidence beyond that 
 which they have already discovered in 
 themselves, in order to convince them 
 of the correctness of our position in the 
 preceding pages. But recognizing the 
 
 47
 
 48 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 fact that this book is likely to fall into 
 the hands of many men who have not 
 yet attained to middle life, or who 
 have never entertained the thought 
 that there occurs in the male nature a 
 sexual hush at middle life, correspond- 
 ing somewhat to the change which they 
 may or may not have known to occur 
 in the physical life of women, it may 
 be necessary before proceeding to the 
 consideration of other phases of our 
 subject that we should carefully re- 
 move from their minds any doubt with 
 regard to the accuracy of the state- 
 ments which we have made. We can- 
 not but recognize the fact that there 
 are those who might have some grounds 
 for fear that we were moved in these 
 pages to the consideration of the sub- 
 ject from an ethical, rather than from 
 a medical standpoint. We have there- 
 fore thought best, at this point, to 
 quote from a few reliable medical 
 authorities, and also to state that we 
 know of no medical authority who is 
 at variance with the teachings of those 
 whom we quote.
 
 31 AN OF FORTY-FIVE. 49 
 
 Dr. James Foster Scott in his ex- 
 cellent new book on the sexual in- 
 stinct entitled " Heredity and Morals " 
 in treating of the climacteric period in 
 men and women says, \ilhe sexual life 
 of both men and women continues 
 until the climacteric, which is a mo- 
 mentous change, or crisis, in the lives 
 of individuals, when the balance be- 
 tween tissue-waste and restitution is 
 disorderedT, After this event the in- 
 dividual is in the afternoon of life and 
 is again sexless from a physiological 
 standpoint^ 
 
 " This physiological change comes on 
 quite abruptly in women sometimes 
 between the forty-second and fiftieth 
 years, with the heaviest figures in the 
 forty -fourth year. In men it is grad- 
 ual and longer deferred, occurring, as 
 a rule, somewhere between the fiftieth 
 and sixty-fifth year, though the effects 
 of the change are by no means so 
 clearly appreciable in them as in 
 women] As a rule, the male repro- 
 ductive elements or spermatozoa, dis- 
 appear from the semen at about the 
 
 4
 
 50 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 sixty-second year, though the individ- 
 ual may be quite able to copulate sat- 
 isfactorily for some years more. Ex- 
 ceptionally the virile power remains 
 with men even to the most advanced 
 age; but women, almost without ex- 
 ception, are sterile before they have 
 reached the fiftieth year. With the 
 completion of the functions of sperm 
 formation by the male, and ovulation, 
 or egg-formation, by the female, their 
 sexual lives become forever closed. 
 
 " Such is the history of life ! At 
 first a neuter ; then a rapid growth 
 and development of the body with 
 sexuality as the distinguishing and 
 fashioning feature ; then the matura- 
 tion and expansion of the physical and 
 psychical endowments ; then the re- 
 productive period, followed hy that of 
 quiescence and old age." 
 
 Dr. Lyman B. Sperry in his book, 
 Husband and Wife, says : " It should 
 be clearly fixed in the mind, for it is 
 highly significant, that the reproduc- 
 tive department naturally unfolds only 
 after one has secured a large measure
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 51 
 
 of general physical development ; and 
 that, naturally, it continues active and 
 potential only until the years when 
 the nutritive department begins to 
 fail, and the body finds its income 
 needed to sustain the energy which is 
 essential to general health and effi- 
 ciency. Evidently the Creator in- 
 tended that only the superabundant 
 and best vitality of matured manhood 
 and womanhood should be used in the 
 generation of offspring. Procreative 
 power is therefore confined to the 
 most vigorous period of life." 
 
 Dr. William Acton, who has for 
 many years been regarded as a stand- 
 ard authority, writing on these matters 
 in his book on "The Eeproductive 
 Organs" and in treating this subject 
 quotes from Doctor Parise, who says : 
 " It is usually at the age of fifty or sixty 
 that the generative function becomes 
 weakened. It is at this period that 
 mem, elevated to the sacred character 
 of paternity, and proud of his virile 
 power, begins to notice that power de- 
 creased, and does so almost with a
 
 52 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 feeling of indignation^ The first step 
 toward feebleness announces to him, 
 unmistakably, that he is no longer the 
 man he was. He may retard the 
 effect up to a certain point, but not en- 
 tirely. This law must have its full 
 and entire execution, dura lex, sed lex. 
 The activity of the generative organs 
 diminishes, their functions abate, lan- 
 guish, and then cease entirely. The 
 wish and the want are no longer one 
 and the same thing; the imagination 
 does not exercise its olden power and 
 fascination on these organs. 
 
 "Blood now only flows in small 
 quantities toward the testes. Their 
 sensibility becomes blunted, and is re- 
 duced to what is sufficient for the nu- 
 trition of the parts. The scrotum is 
 observed to become wrinkled and di- 
 minished in size, the testicles atrophy 
 (waste and diminish in size), and the 
 complicated vascular tissues which 
 form them become obliterated ; the 
 semen, that peculiar secretion of the 
 blood, is not only less abundant, but 
 has lost its consistence and its force.
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. ' 53 
 
 The animalculae, zoosperms, which 
 constitute its nature or its essence, far 
 from being as numerous or active as for- 
 merly, are, on the contrary, few and 
 languid." 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg in his book enti- 
 tled " Plain Facts for Old and Young," 
 says, " When has a man reached that 
 age at which he may be said to be an 
 old man ? There is a wonderful differ- 
 ence in individuals in respect to the 
 period at which symptoms of decline 
 make their appearance, much being 
 due to previous habits of life, as well as 
 individual peculiarities and hereditary 
 predisposition. It may be said, how- 
 ever, that the average man enters upon 
 that portion of his life usually denomi- 
 nated as old age, at about the age of 
 fifty years. At this period his physical 
 powers begin to show evidence of de- 
 cline. His reserve force of vitality 
 which is considerably less than at an 
 earlier age, may still be sufficient to 
 enable his system to perform all the 
 functions of life with regularity, but he 
 is unable to endure hardships as in
 
 54 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 previous years, and suffers sensibly 
 whenever any extreme demand is made 
 upon his vitality. 
 
 " He is a wise man who at this period 
 of life, while his vital functions are still 
 well performed, and the system subject 
 to no special disease or debility, recog- 
 nizes the fact that he is no longer 
 young, and regulates himself accord- 
 ingly. Such a man will lay down as 
 his rule of life the greatest moderation 
 in everything demanding vital expen- 
 diture, and will resolutely set his face 
 against every form of unnecessary ex- 
 penditure of vitality. 
 
 " As has been pointed out elsewhere 
 in this work the exercise of the sexual 
 function is accompanied by the most 
 exhausting expenditure of nervous and 
 vital energy of which the body is capa- 
 ble. Such expenditures are entirely 
 unnecessary to the health of the body, 
 and hence it is evident that at this 
 period of life, when the vital forces 
 should be in every way economized, 
 such indulgences should be discon- 
 tinued."
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 55 
 
 In his book entitled " The Transmis- 
 sion of Life," Dr. George H. Napheys, 
 in writing upon this subject says, " In 
 general, in this country, we may assign 
 the period of virility to commence at 
 twenty-five years of age and to draw 
 to a close at forty-five, thus extending 
 over a score of years. During this 
 period the physical and intellectual ac- 
 tivity of most men is at its height. 
 They are capable of their best, and 
 whether in business or in scholarship, 
 usually accomplish the most for which 
 they are spoken of and remembered. 
 The children born to them during this 
 time are more vigorous, and are en- 
 dowed with more active powers, than 
 those begotten either before or after 
 these limits. From fifteen to twenty- 
 five the organs yield immature and im- 
 perfect secretion, later than forty-five 
 the passions grow rare and briefer, and 
 the individual suffers more acutely from 
 every attempt to increase the species. 
 
 " There are, however, some striking 
 examples on record showing how a good 
 constitution supported by proper care,
 
 56 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 can escape the action of this law for 
 many years." 
 
 This same writer in another place 
 says, " If it is true, and it would seem 
 from the number of opinions expressed 
 by medical authors whom we have con- 
 sulted, that the age of commencing 
 decay in Europe is from fifty to sixty, 
 then in this country we must, as a na- 
 tion, be suffering some degeneration in 
 this respect. For it is certain that of a 
 number of elderly men whom we have 
 consulted on this point, the majority 
 confess to having felt a decided de- 
 crease both in desire and sexual vigor 
 as early as forty-five. We venture the 
 prediction that three out of four of our 
 elderly readers will agree that this 
 coincides with their own experience." 
 
 The causes for this somewhat earlier 
 diminution of virile power will appear 
 in what we have to say later upon this 
 same subject. It is, however, sufficient 
 for our present purpose to have quoted 
 these medical authorities to establish 
 the fact that at about the period of 
 forty-five years of age most men ex-
 
 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 57 
 
 perienco what is sometimes called " a 
 change of life in men," the fact being 
 admitted beyond all peradventure 
 leaves the mind open for the considera- 
 tion of those subjects which are most 
 important in their relation to the future 
 well-being of the individual who has at- 
 tained this period of life.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 COMPENSATIONS. 
 
 Mental Benefits which Attend and Follow the Sex- 
 ual Hush in Men. — Purer Mind and Sweeter 
 Spirit. — Being Able to Look Sympathetically 
 Both Backward and Forward. — Sense of Relief 
 from Perils Past. — The Changes in Men More 
 Gradual and Less Severe Than in Women. — 
 The Changes in Men Fit Them to Sympathize 
 Somewhat with Women. — Physical and Intel- 
 lectual Force of Many Men Not Abated. — After 
 Sexual Modification Many Men Are at Their 
 Best. — Time and Experience Often Open Their 
 Eichest Treasures to Men of Middle Life and 
 Beyond. — The Statement Illustrated. 
 
 While no man can become con- 
 scious of the loss of any of his manly 
 powers without an appreciable sense 
 of regret, yet nature brings many 
 compensations to those who attain to 
 that period of life when they enter 
 upon " the youth of old age." To one 
 whose heart and mind have been set 
 throughout life to the attainment of 
 
 59
 
 60 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 purity and correct living, there is al- 
 Avays present during the earlier years 
 a consciousness of the influence of sex- 
 ual impulse and inclination upon his 
 mental workings. Even the most pure 
 cannot wholly escape from thoughts 
 which crowd in upon the mind and 
 would invade that sanctity of the in- 
 ner life where impurity must not be 
 permitted to take up its abode. Cast 
 them out as speedily as we will the 
 consciousness of their possible intru- 
 sion in hours of business or social 
 pleasure, or even religious worship, al- 
 ways brings apprehension. Xo man 
 who strives after purity of thought 
 and life can do other than regret the 
 intrusion of impure thoughts, and that 
 which distinguishes him from the im- 
 pure, is not that impure thoughts do 
 not come to him, but that he does not 
 permit them to abide in his mind so as 
 to bring forth their prolific progeny of 
 evils in his life. To such a man the 
 knowledge of the fact that the stress 
 of sexual impulse is gradually passing 
 away, and that with the coming years
 
 3IAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 61 
 
 there is to be an increasing control 
 over his mind and sexual nature, brings 
 some grateful sense of relief. To such 
 an one there comes a sense of satisfac- 
 tion that with the added years the 
 stress of passion will be past, the im- 
 agination will become more chastened, 
 the heart more refined, the lines of 
 intellectual and spiritual vision length- 
 ened, the sphere of usefulness enlarged, 
 and that the character may become 
 more and more conformed to that per- 
 fection and majesty of Him who is 
 represented in the Scriptures as " The 
 Ancient of Days." 
 
 Only once in a long life is a man 
 permitted to stand where he can enjoy 
 the satisfaction of looking sympathetic- 
 ally both backward and forward. At 
 the middle period of life one may look 
 backward with tender interest upon 
 the young in their vigor and hopeful- 
 ness, and also look forward with under- 
 standing and sympathy for those whose 
 declining years bring them physical in- 
 firmities, and whose perplexities and 
 disappointments leave them but little
 
 62 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 
 
 hope of finding rest until their weary 
 feet stand in the home of their heav- 
 enly Father. 
 
 It has been said that " at forty-five a 
 man is either a fool or a physician." 
 This aphorism is full of thoughtful 
 suggestion, and the man who can look 
 back upon all his earlier years realiz- 
 ing that amidst its temptations, its 
 dangers and its ruin he has been mer- 
 cifully led and graciously preserved 
 from the pitfalls into which so many 
 have fallen to their utter discomfiture 
 and ruin, will find in his contempla- 
 tions a large sense of compensation. 
 If the impulses and inclinations which 
 God has placed within us for the wisest 
 and best purposes have found their 
 rightful and intended exercise, there 
 will come a sense of satisfaction, that 
 after the pleasures which the exercise 
 of these endowments has afforded, 
 have passed away, there remains that 
 pure affection, and the calm satisfac- 
 tion of their recollection. 
 
 Every man who notes how much 
 greater the changes and more fierce
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 63 
 
 the struggles through which almost 
 every woman is called upon to pass at 
 this period of what is called " change 
 of life," cannot but be grateful, that in 
 his own nature these changes are more 
 gradual, and the consequences almost 
 imperceptible, except at considerable 
 intervals, and his trials, after all, noth- 
 ing as compared with the more griev- 
 ous struggles from which most women 
 cannot wholly escape. Every man 
 who experiences in his own nature 
 these less marked changes which are 
 taking place, has a sense of compensa- 
 tion in the fact that what he is ex- 
 periencing in his own physical nature 
 qualifies him the better to sympathize, 
 at least in some measure, Avith her 
 whom he has loved all these years, and 
 who is now called upon to bear phys- 
 ical, mental, and nervous changes which 
 call for the utmost patience and for- 
 bearance, not only upon the part of 
 the wife herself, but upon the part of 
 every person who shares her lot in life 
 with her. While many women pass 
 the period of menopause almost as un-
 
 64 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 consciously as a person in a railroad 
 train crosses the boundary of one state 
 and enters the territory of another, 
 yet in the great majority of cases, the 
 accomplishment of these changes ex- 
 tends over a considerable period, and 
 in some instances continues for years, 
 calling for the largest measure of sym- 
 pathy and endurance which the hus- 
 band has ever been called upon to ex- 
 ercise, and which no true and devoted 
 man should be reluctant to give ; but 
 remembering what he owes to the wife 
 of his bosom and the mother of his 
 children, he should accord to her all 
 the tenderness that the situation de- 
 mands with the greatest possible 
 cheerfulness and consideration. 
 
 There are some men whose physical 
 and intellectual forces at middle life 
 suffer very little abatement, but this is 
 not the case Avith most men. With the 
 large and preponderating majority 
 there is less pluck and push, less 
 courage in undertaking and pursuing 
 new enterprises or large responsibili- 
 ties. The sleep is likely to be some-
 
 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. G5 
 
 what disturbed, and be awakens earlier 
 in the morning. Cares and anxieties 
 which formerly were easily thrust 
 aside, now leave a sense of nervous 
 anxiety ; and he finds in his own ex- 
 perience the foreshadowing of those 
 conditions of the more advanced years 
 which still lie fifteen or twenty years 
 beyond, " when they shall be afraid of 
 that which is high, and fears shall be 
 in the way, and the almond tree shall 
 flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a 
 burden, and desire shall fail." 
 
 These words are quoted here not to 
 produce discouragement, nor to add to 
 nervousness anxiety, but in order that 
 we may look at the facts just as they 
 are. 
 
 But, while what we have said is true, 
 nature brings returns which fully com- 
 pensate for what one has lost. The 
 fact is that a man whose life has been 
 correct, whose health is not impaired, 
 whose years have been given to 
 thoughtful study, never attains his 
 very best until he has passed this 
 period of middle life. When the 
 
 5
 
 66 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 physical masculine nature has received 
 its modification, the real man within 
 rises in a might and majesty never be- 
 fore possible. The mind and the heart 
 become what they never before have 
 been. The man is able to grasp, hold 
 and analyze a subject in a manner 
 which was previously not possible to 
 him. His experience is enriched, and 
 the holiest affections of his heart, mel- 
 lowed by the returning frosts of per- 
 sonal sorrow and repeated trial, ripen 
 into their sweetest tenderness. In 
 character, in manhood, in might, in 
 mental grasp and grip, he becomes 
 superior to himself in his previous 
 years. If he does not attain to these 
 results it is because, ignorant of the 
 future he failed to improve the past ; 
 because he has lived too much in the 
 round of physical duties or sexual ex- 
 cesses ; because he has neglected to 
 care properly for his health, has failed 
 to cultivate his mind, and to discipline 
 his heart. If in the past he has been 
 faithful to the present, then with the 
 coming of middle life, he enters into
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 67 
 
 that larger endowment, that clearer in- 
 sight, that wider outlook, that keener 
 analysis, that more accurate judgment, 
 and that larger outgoing of the heart 
 in holy affections which are so greatly 
 to be desired in men to whom both 
 time and experience have opened their 
 largest and richest treasures. 
 
 We have frequently thought that the 
 intellectual change might be aptly com- 
 pared to the difference between the re- 
 sults which are secured in the taking of 
 photographs. In the earlier years the 
 mind is more like the sensitive plate, 
 prepared for the taking of a snap shot 
 picture. In middle life, and after, the 
 mind is more like the plate which is 
 prepared for a slight time-exposure, 
 but which, under the skilful manage- 
 ment of an experienced operator, se- 
 cures a finer and more desirable result. 
 Experience teaches every one the pos- 
 sibility of mistake and failure, and at 
 middle life there comes that added 
 caution and consideration which lends 
 so much truth to the statement, " young 
 men for war, and old men for counsel."
 
 68 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 It is this that causes us to prefer to 
 trust our lives to the judgment of men 
 of years and experience, and to call to 
 our cabinet of advisers, those whose 
 judgments have been matured by years 
 of experience.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MODERATION ENJOINED. 
 
 Effects in Different Men of the Sexual Hush. — 
 Moderation Necessary in All Instances. — Effect 
 of Prolonged Mental Effort.— Of Long Con- 
 tinued Physical Effort. — Effect of Anxiety and 
 Worry. — Dangers from Lawsuits. — The Victims 
 of Social Exactions. — Importance of Adequate 
 Rest and Sleep. — Some Helpful Suggestions 
 Concerning Insomnia. 
 
 To what extent each person will 
 be perceptibly affected by the modifi- 
 cations of the male nature which take 
 place in middle life, it would be im- 
 possible always accurately to predict. 
 As with women so with men, there are 
 those who pass the climacteric period 
 almost unconsciously. To others it is 
 a period of special stress and peril. 
 Much depends upon the physical en- 
 dowment, the previous mode of life, 
 the character of the individual's occu- 
 pation at the time the period arrives, 
 and many other considerations. 
 
 69
 
 70 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 "Whether the period of climacteric 
 change comes early in life or later; 
 whether attended by changes of a 
 more or less marked character, yet to 
 one and to all there is the necessity for 
 the same admonition and caution with 
 regard to excess. 
 
 The individual who has been given 
 to intellectual effort, and who has 
 found it easy to give himself absorb- 
 ingly for long periods to careful study 
 and investigation, to devote himself to 
 writing and literary work, there is 
 very sure to come at this period a 
 growing consciousness that the amount 
 of intellectual effort which was pre- 
 viously attended with no unusual 
 weariness, is now followed by a 
 greater languor and a more prolonged 
 fatigue. Nature begins to give those 
 warnings which admonish against all 
 forms of excess. 
 
 What is true of intellectual effort is 
 true also of physical effort. Prolonged 
 hours of labor are attended with un- 
 usual weariness, and if oft repeated 
 or long continued, may be attended
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 71 
 
 with exhaustion or even with prostra- 
 tion. 
 
 Undue mental anxiety at this period 
 of life is specially to be avoided. It is 
 not wise to assume large financial risks, 
 involving special hazard and attended 
 with anxiety and worry. Where lim- 
 ited financial resources are inadequate 
 to meet accruing obligations or daily 
 demands, every effort should be made 
 to keep the mind hopeful, and as far as 
 possible to throw off every source of 
 anxiety and worry. 
 
 Complicated legal difficulties are to 
 be specially avoided at this period of 
 life. Hundreds of men are made phys- 
 ical wrecks because of the anxieties and 
 mental strains which come with law- 
 suits at this period. The strain of 
 such anxiety cannot usually be thrown 
 off after a few days of worry, but gen- 
 erally extend over a long period. It is 
 not only nervous prostration which is 
 to be feared, but any one of a score of 
 other physical infirmities are likely to 
 follow as the result of such mental 
 anxiety.
 
 72 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 But a man is to be guarded not only 
 upon the side of daily duty, but upon 
 the side of social exactions as well. 
 Thousands of women are annually 
 slain by what they regard as the un- 
 avoidable demands of " social duties ; " 
 and hundreds of men are also claimed 
 as its victims. Late hours in over- 
 crowded auditoriums, breathing im- 
 pure air, or in social gatherings, eating 
 indigestible food at late hours, and in 
 either instance subjecting the entire 
 man to abnormal excitement and 
 strains during the very hours which 
 nature has not only provided, but 
 which she now absolutely demands 
 for rest and recuperation, are sure to 
 bring their own sad results. 
 
 It is at this period of life that nature 
 demands its full quota of sleep and rest, 
 so that the renewing and rebuilding 
 processes which are becoming more 
 tardy and which now require more 
 time, should not be interrupted by loss 
 of sleep. It is at this period of life that 
 men naturally prefer the quiet of their 
 own homes in the evening, and wisely
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 73 
 
 find a growing tendency to retire at an 
 earlier hour. 
 
 Those who are troubled with a 
 growing tendency to insomnia may 
 find relief in the following valuable 
 suggestion. If the mind is permitted 
 to accumulate momentum, the sleep 
 will be interrupted, the nervous forces, 
 instead of being rested and renewed, 
 will become exhausted, and leave a 
 sense of great fatigue. It is therefore 
 necessary to arrest the mind as early as 
 possible. As prevention is better than 
 cure, it is best of all to retire with the 
 distinct and definite purpose of going 
 to sleep. When there is a tendency to 
 wakefulness, the mind may be diverted 
 and put into a cheerful frame by dwell- 
 ing for a few moments upon some 
 pleasant stanza or two of poetry, or 
 where the individual is religious, the 
 devotional frame of mind will be found 
 to be the very best, and this may be at- 
 tained by the use of some scriptural 
 passage like the first five verses of the 
 one hundred and third Psalm begin- 
 ning : "Bless the Lord, O my soul;
 
 74 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 and all that is within nie, bless His 
 holy name. Bless the Lord, my 
 soul and forget not all His benefits." 
 Such passages as this dwelt upon men- 
 tally, and given their largest freightage 
 of spiritual meaning will arrest the 
 mind from the contemplation of sub- 
 jects which are likely to bring anxiety 
 and worry, and make the mind more 
 sympathetic to the effort which is to 
 follow. 
 
 If the mind should be found to be 
 excessively active, and cannot be ar- 
 rested by the suggestion which we 
 have just made, it would be well to try 
 some stanza of poetry, or of a hymn, 
 or the long meter doxology ; thinking 
 not only the words, but the music and 
 letting the meter become longer and 
 longer as the mind passes more slowly 
 and still more slowly, from word to 
 word, arresting the momentum of the 
 mind very much like a bicycler arrests 
 the momentum of his wheel by the 
 effort of back pedaling, until gradu- 
 ally, slower and slower, he brings his 
 wheel to a standstill. A few repeti-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 75 
 
 tions of this effort is likely to result in 
 unconsciousness and sleep. 
 
 When the mind has been arrested, a 
 cheerful or devotional frame has been 
 secured — and both of these results may 
 frequently be obtained in the course of 
 a couple of minutes — if the individual 
 will take deep inhalations, and breathe 
 just as though he were asleep, he will, 
 under ordinary circumstances, be likely 
 to drop off into unconsciousness, which 
 will extend itself into a night of the very 
 sweetest and most refreshing sleep. 
 
 When the effort to count imaginary 
 sheep as they jump over a fence, to 
 place the houses in a street, and the 
 various other mental efforts often 
 attempted have failed, the above sug- 
 gestions will be found of infinitely 
 more assistance and value. Where the 
 suggestions which we have made are 
 carefully followed, they are likely to 
 save from the necessity of the sitz 
 bath and other means which oftentimes 
 become necessary where extreme re- 
 sults have not been avoided by early 
 and judicious methods.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MODERATION EMPHASIZED. 
 
 Far-reaching Effects of Sexual Excess in Middle 
 Life. — Coition Followed by Longer Periods of 
 Lassitude. — Nature thus Sounding Her "Warn- 
 ings. — Moderation for Husband's Own Well- 
 being and That of Wife.— Character of the Mod- 
 eration as Shown by Medical Authorities. — 
 Dr. William Acton, of London, Quoted. — Ex- 
 perience in Middle Life Teaches Moderation. — 
 Vital Exuberance Needed for the Transmission 
 of Life. — Testimony of Dr. M. Parise of France. 
 — Changed Character of Love at Middle Life. — 
 Statements of Cicero and Plato on Moderation. 
 — The Strong Statements of Doctor Napheys. — 
 Other Medical Men Quoted.— Nature's Punish- 
 ment of Libidinous Old Men. — Some Humili- 
 ating Pictures Presented by Medical Men. — 
 Sowing to the Flesh and Reaping Corruption. 
 
 At the period of middle life it is 
 highly important that every person 
 should be forewarned concerning cer- 
 tain excesses which will now leave in 
 their train consequences of the most 
 serious character — consequences such
 
 78 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 as were altogether unknown in the 
 earlier years. The possession of such 
 information will save its possessor from 
 many sad results. In view of the fact 
 that nearly all of the changes which 
 take place in the physical nature of 
 man at this period are largely due to 
 the changes which take place in the re- 
 productive nature, it is of the utmost 
 importance that he should fully under- 
 stand that sexual excess at this time 
 will entail results which are far-reach- 
 ing and oftentimes serious in their ef- 
 fects. Even men whose powers of en- 
 durance have never before sug-g-ested 
 any considerable restraint of the sexual 
 inclination, will now find that the act 
 of coition is generally followed by a 
 period of lassitude or weariness more 
 pronounced and more prolonged than 
 anything he has previously experienced. 
 Nature is thus sounding her warnings 
 and admonishing the individual of the 
 importance of the utmost care in the 
 use of a secretion which can now ill 
 be spared, and which is of utmost im- 
 portance in vitalizing every department
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 79 
 
 of the physical economy. Nature is 
 now beginning to teach the individual 
 that that period of life during which 
 the procreative power may be exercised 
 is gradually passing away ; and that 
 the individual should assume that mas- 
 tery and control of his sexual inclina- 
 tion which will, throughout the coming 
 years, enable him to conserve and 
 maintain his physical and intellectual 
 powers, which are to continue to be to 
 him of the utmost importance. 
 
 It is at this period that each man 
 needs carefully to consider the obliga- 
 tions which are upon him to maintain 
 a life of most careful and judicious 
 moderation. He is not only to con- 
 sider this because of his own well- 
 being, but he is also to consider it, be- 
 cause of the comfort, physical well- 
 being and happiness of his wife. 
 
 Something of what this moderation 
 should be will be gleaned from some 
 quotations from medical authorities 
 which will not only throw light upon 
 this subject, but which will also afford 
 the reader that information and coun-
 
 80 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 sel which is so essential at the period 
 of middle life. 
 
 Dr. William Acton in his standard 
 work on the reproductive organs says : 
 " My readers will by this time have be- 
 come aware that in childhood the gen- 
 erative functions should be absolutely 
 quiescent, that even in youth the sex- 
 ual powers are rather to be husbanded 
 than taxed, and that the adult himself 
 should be chary of exhausting those 
 capacities which nature has given him 
 for the continuance of his species. 
 
 " We have now to consider those 
 functions, powers and desires in ad- 
 vanced life ; and it will appear that old 
 age resembles youth in this, that if the 
 elderly man wishes to preserve his in- 
 tellectual faculties, health, and vigor, 
 and would enjoy a long life, he must 
 be content with, at most, only a very 
 moderate indulgence of the sexual 
 passion. His motto should be 'de- 
 posui arma miles inermis.' 
 
 " Fortunately for the individual, 
 moderation is usually practiced. The 
 elderly man has generally learned from
 
 3IAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 81 
 
 experience that the generative function 
 could not have been wisely, or, indeed, 
 duly exercised, before the body had 
 attained its entire development — that 
 it is the test of manhood, the crown- 
 ing effort of maturity, and that it 
 must diminish with a waning frame. 
 Experience ought to have taught men 
 that we require a sort of vital exuber- 
 ance, to transmit what may become 
 another being; and this prerogative 
 is given to us only during the prime of 
 our existence." 
 
 Dr. M. Parise, for many years Secre- 
 tary of the Royal Academy in France, 
 says : " Love at the decline of life 
 should take quite a moral character, 
 freed from all its animal propensities. 
 In the elderly man it is paternal, con- 
 jugal, patriotic attachment, which, 
 without being so energetic as the love 
 experienced in youth, still warms old 
 hearts and old age — and, believe me, 
 these have their sweet privileges, as 
 well as sometimes their bitter realities. 
 These autumn roses are not without 
 perfume — perhaps less intoxicating 
 
 6
 
 82 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 than that arising from first love, but 
 presenting none of its dangers. 
 
 " One of the most important pieces 
 of information which a man in years 
 can attain is, ' to learn to become old 
 betimes,' if he wishes to attain old age. 
 Cicero, we are told, was asked if he 
 still indulged in the pleasures of love. 
 ' Heaven forbid ! ' replied he, ' I have 
 forsworn it as I would a savage and a 
 ferocious master.' " 
 
 In the opening part of Plato's Re- 
 public, the merry old Cephalus says : 
 " I was once in company with Sopho- 
 cles, the poet, when he was asked by 
 some one, ' How do you feel, Sophocles, 
 as to the pleasures of love ? Are you 
 still able to enjoy them ? ' ' Softly, 
 friend,' replied he, ' most gladly indeed 
 have I escaped from these pleasures, 
 as from some furious and savage 
 masters.' " 
 
 Dr. George H. Napheys in "The 
 Transmission of Life," says : " Those 
 who are already in the enjoyment of 
 good health will need but few instruc- 
 tions to retain their strength at this
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 83 
 
 period of life. They must, however, 
 bear in mind the approach of advanc- 
 ing years, and the facility to disease 
 ■which, ever accompanies declining age. 
 Therefore they must avoid all excesses, 
 restrict the indulgence of desire within 
 moderate bounds, and if unmarried, 
 live lives not only continent but chaste, 
 avoiding not merely vices which are 
 condemned both by statute and reli- 
 gion, but also all impure thoughts and 
 conversations ; for the latter, as we 
 shall have occasion to show more fully 
 hereafter, are enervating to the body 
 as well as demoralizing to the mind. 
 The functions of sex are so intimately 
 allied to the mental condition that the 
 one sympathizes invariably with the 
 other, and what degrades one, with 
 little short of absolute certainty, im- 
 pairs the other. 
 
 " Then the man at middle life should 
 be aware that to insure either a re- 
 spected or a happy old age, he must at 
 least make up his mind to renounce 
 forever the exercise of his sexual pow- 
 ers, and with this in view, he should,
 
 84 31 AN OF FORTY- FIVE. 
 
 as years progress, steadily wean him- 
 self more and more from the control of 
 desire, and fix his thoughts upon those 
 philanthropic and unselfish projects 
 which add beauty to age, and are the 
 crown to gray hairs. What more nau- 
 seous and repulsive object than a libidi- 
 nous and worn-out old man, heating his 
 diseased imagination with dreams and 
 images which his chilled and impotent 
 body can no longer carry into effect ? " 
 
 Dr. J. H. Kellogg says: "Some 
 learned physicians place the proper 
 limit of man's functional activity at 
 fifty years, if he would not render 
 himself guilty of shortening his days 
 by sensuality." 
 
 The Abbe Maury is quoted by Doc- 
 tor Gardner as follows : " I hold as 
 certain that after fifty years of age a 
 man of sense ought to renounce the 
 pleasures of love. Each time that he 
 allows himself this gratification is a 
 pellet of earth thrown upon his coffin." 
 
 While the effects which the observ- 
 ant and the thoughtful experience after 
 the act of coition is a sufficient moni-
 
 M AN OF FORTY-FIVE. 85 
 
 tion to them to desist in the exercise 
 of the reproductive function and the 
 loss of life's vital fluid, yet there are 
 those who demonstrate in their own 
 conduct the wisdom of the old adage 
 " An old fool is the worst kind of a 
 fool." 
 
 Doctor Parise, the distinguished 
 French physician, whom we have re- 
 cently quoted in his "work on " Old 
 Age," in speaking of these libidinous 
 old libertines says : " Unfortunately, 
 there are those who, either more in- 
 fatuated, or more helplessly drifting on 
 the tide of passion, or more depraved, 
 use all their endeavors to realize de- 
 sires which it is no longer possible to 
 satisfy, unless by a forced compliance 
 of the organs. Not only has the en- 
 ergy, the superfluous vitality of early 
 days, disappeared, but the organic 
 power of reproduction is nearly oblit- 
 erated. ' Is all over then ? ' It is 
 now that Yenus Impudica lavishes on 
 her used-up votaries her appetizing 
 stimulants to vice and debauchery, the 
 imagination, polluted with impurities,
 
 86 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 seeks pleasure which reason and good 
 sense repudiate. There are instances 
 of debauched and shameless old age 
 which, deficient in vital resources, 
 strives to supply their place by ficti- 
 tious excitement ; a kind of brutish 
 lasciviousness, that is ever the more 
 cruelly punished by nature, from the fact 
 that the immediately ensuing debility 
 is in direct proportion to the forced 
 stimulation which has preceded it. 
 
 " Reduced to the pleasures of recol- 
 lection, at once passionate and impo- 
 tent, their sensuality may kill, but can- 
 not satiate. There are such old liber- 
 tines who are constantly seeking after 
 the means of revivifying their with- 
 ered, used-up organism, as if that were 
 possible without imminent danger. 
 The law of nature is without appeal. 
 To submit to it is the result of good, 
 sound judgment, and the reward is 
 speedy. But submission is no invaria- 
 ble rule, and persons of prudence and 
 chastity have but a faint conception of 
 the devices to evade it, of the folly, 
 caprice, luxury, immodesty, the mon-
 
 31 AN OF FORTY FIVE. 87 
 
 strous lewdness and indescribable satur- 
 nalia of the senses which are the re- 
 sult. The surgeon alone knows from 
 the confession of his patients, or sur- 
 mises from his experience, to what a 
 depth corruption will descend, and the 
 evils which will follow, particularly in 
 large capitals. One of the most com- 
 mon means of excitement employed by 
 these senile Lovelaces is change, variety 
 in the persons they pursue. What is 
 more fatal to the organism f Extreme 
 youth is sacrificed to these shameless 
 old men. The full-blown charms of 
 fine women no longer suffice ; they ad- 
 dress themselves to mere children, to 
 the great scandal of our manners, and 
 of all that these victims of debauchery 
 hold dear and sacred. Nevertheless, 
 let it be remarked, it is seldom, very 
 seldom, that punishment comes pede 
 claudo (with a sore foot) ; old age, 
 which disease changes every day into 
 decrepitude — often sudden death, and 
 death that lasts for years, a consequent 
 of cruel infirmities — proves the justice 
 of nature."
 
 88 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 In writing upon this same phase of 
 the subject, when treating of the deg- 
 radation and debauchery of old men, 
 another writer says : " When a young 
 man, without any redeeming qualities, 
 has run through a career of de- 
 bauchery, when his adult age is but a 
 new lease of similar associations, the 
 necessity for additional excitement ap- 
 pears to goad him on. Fictitious de- 
 sires increase, until it is impossible to 
 say where the acme of debauchery 
 shall be reached, or what devices may 
 be invented by those in his pay ' to 
 minister to a mind diseased.' This is 
 particularly the case when such a pam- 
 pered, ill-directed, unrestrained will is 
 accompanied by unlimited wealth. 
 For such an one, youth, innocence, and 
 beauty soon cease to have attraction. 
 "Well has it been said of him, that ' The 
 beast has destroyed the man.' Variety 
 may for a time satisfy or stimulate his 
 failing powers, but not for very long. 
 Local stimulants are tried, and, after 
 a short repetition, these also fail. As 
 a last resource, unnatural excitement
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 89 
 
 is brought to bear, and now public 
 decency is forgotten, and we probably 
 find that the first check to the lust of 
 the opulent satyr is his finding himself 
 the hero of some filthy police case, — 
 then, may be, a convict or a voluntary 
 exile. 
 
 "As schoolboys, we may have been 
 accustomed to laugh at the fables of 
 the grotesque sylvan monsters of an- 
 tiquity, ignorant of what hideous 
 truths of human nature their half-ani- 
 mal forms were the symbols. Even 
 after sad experience has enlarged our 
 knowledge of the possibilities of vice, 
 few of us, happily, have any idea of 
 how completely these bestial forms of 
 ancient art represent the condition of 
 the satyrs who so notoriously affect 
 the seclusion and the shade of the 
 parks and gardens in modern cities. 
 I question if a prison is the proper 
 place for such debased individuals. 
 As far as I have noticed their organiza- 
 tion, I should say an uncontrolled giv- 
 ing way to the sexual passion has used 
 up a frame never very strong. The
 
 90 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 constant drain of the nervous power 
 has produced an effect which rendered 
 its subject indifferent to consequences, 
 provided his all-absorbing pursuit, 
 namely, ministering to the excitement 
 of his sexual passion, can be indulged 
 in. Doubtless, in many instances, the 
 brain has become affected, particularly 
 when there existed a strong hereditary 
 tendency to disease. This, together 
 with deficiency of occupation, has 
 caused many of these victims to their 
 own feelings to make the pandering to 
 their vile desire, and gratification of 
 every sensuality their imagination can 
 devise, the chief occupation of life. 
 The medical man would hardly feel 
 justified in certifying their fitness for 
 a lunatic asylum, as in all other respects 
 their conduct appears to be sane. 
 Observing, as these persons do, all the 
 other usual convenances of society, 
 there is yet a something about them 
 wilich marks them as thralls of a 
 debasing pursuit. It is an error, how- 
 ever, to suppose that they often suffer 
 from venereal disease. Your old de-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 91 
 
 hauclies know too well the parties they 
 have to deal with, and every precau- 
 tion is taken to avoid the consequences. 
 They are living and suffering spectres, 
 whom, some clever writer has observed, 
 ' Death seems to forget to strike, be- 
 cause he believes them already in the 
 tomb.' 
 
 " It may, perhaps, be thought singu- 
 lar in my suggesting a moral based 
 upon such vile practices as the above, 
 but allusion to them may not be with- 
 out benefit to those beginning vice ; 
 and I would say, Let those persons 
 take warning who with an active im- 
 agination once enter upon a career of 
 vice, and dream that at a certain spot 
 they can arrest their progress. It is 
 an old tale, and often told, that, al- 
 though the slope of criminality be easy 
 and gradual, it is still ' le premier pas 
 qui coute ' ; and he who launches him- 
 self on such a course, will acquire, as 
 he goes, velocity and force, until at 
 last he cannot he stayed." 
 
 To understand the full meaning of 
 the declaration, " He that soweth to
 
 92 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corrup- 
 tion," one needs to pass beyond the 
 limit of the sowing-time of youth to 
 the years of reaping which come at 
 middle life and old age. David prayed 
 " Remember not the sins of my youth, 
 nor my transgressions." Ephraim 
 mourned and smote his thigh saying, 
 " I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, 
 because I did bear the reproach of my 
 youth." Zophar, showing the state of 
 the wicked, said, " His bones are full 
 of the sins of his youth which shall lie 
 down with him in the dust," and Job 
 declared, " For thou writest bitter 
 things against me, and makest me to 
 possess the iniquities of my youth."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 VIRILITY — HOW DESTROYED, HOW 
 PRESERVED. 
 
 Mutual Dependence of Bodily Vigor and Virility. 
 — Development of Muscular Strength vs. Pres- 
 ervation of Nervous Force. — How Virile Power 
 is Prematurely Sacrificed. — Sexual Excess. — 
 Relation of Food to Virile Power. — Effects of 
 Stimulants. — Effects of Bodily Disease. — Imper- 
 fect Mastication of Food. — Insufficient Sleep. — 
 Importance of Exercise and Recreation. — Cycling 
 and Horseback Riding. — Defective Saddles. — 
 Cheerful Companionship. — Importance of Well- 
 chosen Occupation. — The Comforting View for 
 Men of Middle Life to Take of Physical Changes. 
 
 As the vigor of both the body and 
 the mind are dependent upon the best 
 possible maintenance of virility, and 
 as in turn virility is dependent upon 
 the physical conditions, it is important 
 that we should consider, at least briefly, 
 some of the causes which destroy vi- 
 rility and some of the best means for 
 its preservation. 
 
 93
 
 94 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 As the whole body shares in the 
 benefits of those influences which tend 
 to strengthen and perpetuate virile 
 power, and as they suffer from what- 
 ever tends to destroy virility, it is 
 manifestly important to defer its loss 
 to the most distant day possible. 
 
 It must be remembered that exercise 
 and use tend to the development of 
 muscular tissue and the acquisition of 
 muscular power, but with functions 
 that stand closely related to the nerv- 
 ous system, like that involved in the 
 reproduction of life, the reverse is the 
 case. By use a muscle increases in 
 strength and decreases in irritability, 
 but with a nerve the opposite is the 
 case. Eepeated calls upon it result in 
 increased irritability and a diminution 
 in tone and strength. It will therefore 
 be seen that in order to preserve the 
 nervous svstem in its best form, we 
 should seek to stimulate and excite it 
 as little as possible. The preservation 
 of nervous force and power is there- 
 fore essential at all periods of life, but 
 especially at middle life and beyond,
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 95 
 
 and therefore, while it is not necessary 
 that the sexual inclination should be 
 immolated, yet all sexual stimulants 
 and excitements should be carefully 
 avoided. 
 
 It is important therefore to ask, how 
 is virility prematurely sacrificed ? 
 
 The first and most frequent cause is 
 sexual excess. After what we have al- 
 ready said in the preceding chapters, it 
 is not necessary to dwell further upon 
 this subject. It is, however, important 
 to call attention to the fact that what 
 might have been moderate in an ear- 
 lier period of life, may now, because of 
 changed conditions and attendant re- 
 sults, be regarded as excessive, for 
 what is moderation at one time may 
 be excess at another period. While 
 perhaps few physicians would enforce 
 absolute continence upon men of good 
 bodily vigor at the period of middle life, 
 yet Doctor Parise, the eminent French- 
 man, says, " When you see an elderly 
 man, judicious, endowed with firm rea- 
 son, whose enlightened and active mind 
 is still capable of directing his affairs
 
 96 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 ably, and making himself useful to so- 
 ciety, be convinced that such a man is 
 discreet and continent, and that tem- 
 perance — so justly called Sophrosyne, 
 the Guardian of Wisdom, by the an- 
 cients — has in him a fervent admirer ; 
 in fact, he has acquired his perfect 
 moral liberty." 
 
 Yirile power may suffer and be pre- 
 maturely destroyed because of insuffi- 
 cient food, or because the food, al- 
 though sufficient, may not be nutritive 
 in quality ; for a sufficient quantity of 
 the best food may be so poorly mas- 
 ticated as to render digestion difficult 
 or even impossible, and not only the 
 sexual powers, but the entire body may 
 be famished and starved in the midst 
 of abundance and plenty. 
 
 Physical or mental effort unduly 
 prolonged, sorrow, grief or excessive 
 worry tends to the destruction of virile 
 power. 
 
 It is agreed by all physicians that 
 the habitual or frequent use of alco- 
 holic liquors, opium and tobacco, is 
 hostile to virile power and tends to its
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 97 
 
 premature destruction. The earliest 
 effects of the use of narcotics is to 
 stimulate the sexual propensities, and 
 on this account, liquors and tobacco, 
 and even opium, are quite generally 
 associated with houses of prostitution. 
 This temporary stimulation, however, 
 is always followed by reaction, and 
 the eventual result of its use is the 
 ruin of sexual power. Temperance 
 and moderation are indispensable pre- 
 requisites to those who would main- 
 tain and preserve their virility to an 
 advanced period of life. 
 
 What is true of liquor, tobacco and 
 opium, is also measurably true of tea, 
 coffee and other narcotics. Tea and 
 coffee, if used at all, should therefore 
 be used in moderation. 
 
 As the reproductive system is inti- 
 mately associated with all the other 
 functions of the body, it will be easily 
 understood that when one member 
 suffers, all suffer. On this account 
 any bodily disease or infirmity is likely 
 to have its sympathetic or reflex influ- 
 ence upon reproductive power. 
 
 7
 
 98 MAS OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 Those who would preserve their vi- 
 rility to old age should be careful to 
 choose wholesome and nutritions food. 
 
 In quantity it should neither be defi- 
 cient nor excessive. It should be thor- 
 oughly masticated, and to this end it 
 is important that one should look care- 
 fully after the condition of the teeth, 
 which are likely to begin to deteriorate 
 quite rapidly at the period of middle 
 life. The money spent with the den- 
 tist may be returned many fold in 
 healthful vigor, and a saving in the 
 doctor's bills. 
 
 There are many persons who bring 
 about general debility by late hours 
 and insufficient sleep. At middle life 
 those organs of the human body which 
 are assigned the duty of rebuilding 
 and preserving the physical powers 
 become less active and require more 
 time for the accomplishment of their 
 tasks. If their duty is not rendered 
 difficult and even impossible, the work- 
 ing and depleting hours should not be 
 unduly prolonged. Rest and sleep will 
 greatly facilitate the recuperative pow-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 99 
 
 ers in the complete accomplishment of 
 their important work. 
 
 No man at middle life can afford to 
 yield to that tendency to become inac- 
 tive which usually attends the changes 
 through which he is passing. Health- 
 ful and enlivening recreations should 
 be constantly sought and heartily en- 
 gaged in. The distinction which Ave 
 have made in previous volumes between 
 exercise and recreation, should be care- 
 fully observed, and even where there 
 has been sufficient exercise, recreation 
 must not be dispensed with. 
 
 In the choice of one's recreations, he 
 should be careful to avoid those which 
 may tend to injurious results at this 
 period of life, discriminating carefully 
 against those which tend, either be- 
 cause of their associations or influences, 
 to excite the sexual propensities, or- 
 which may produce local irritation and 
 result in the premature or undue en- 
 largement of the prostate gland, which 
 is such a common source of trouble to 
 men of middle life and beyond. 
 
 To this end, it is important to guard
 
 100 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 
 
 carefully against cycling with an un- 
 sanitary saddle, or riding horseback, 
 unless the pressure can be removed from 
 the perineum, and the constant irrita- 
 tion of the prostate gland. Where one 
 is already suffering from any local ir- 
 ritation at the neck of the bladder, it 
 is well to note carefully whether the 
 effects of the jar or vibration of horse- 
 back riding and cycling may not be in- 
 jurious in their results. The unsanitary 
 saddles long in use have caused thou- 
 sands of men to suffer prematurely from 
 effects which they might otherwise 
 have escaped until late in life. 
 
 As far as possible, those who seek 
 the best endowments for the closing 
 years of life, should carefully seek 
 cheerful companionship. Such is not 
 possible to all persons, nor possible at 
 all times to the same person, yet any 
 individual may bring with him a young 
 heart and a spirit of good cheer into 
 any company, and by the effects of his 
 own influence enjoy that reflex benefit 
 which will be his adequate reward. 
 
 Perhaps no other one thing contrib-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 101 
 
 utes so much to good health and virility 
 as a well-chosen occupation. It calls the 
 physical and intellectual powers into 
 their best exercise, turns the thought 
 into healthful and productive channels, 
 and secures for the individual the very 
 best results. Many a man is ruined 
 and becomes prematurely old because 
 he has lost or lacks an occupation which 
 will call all his powers into their most 
 healthful exercise. A man can scarcely 
 make a more fatal mistake than to ac- 
 cumulate a fortune and then retire from 
 business at middle life. The selfish 
 who pursue this course reap their own. 
 sad reward, while those who know 
 how to use the money accumulated in 
 successful business undertakings for the 
 benefit of their fellow-men, and for the 
 furtherance of every worthy charity, 
 will find no need of retiring, because 
 they have accumulated all they can 
 personally use during their own life. 
 Nature generally looks well to it that 
 such selfish and useless persons are 
 hastened in their departure from the 
 stage of action.
 
 102 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 We are anxious that what we have 
 said should not be understood to teach 
 that virile power always departs from 
 men in ordinary bodily vigor at the 
 period of middle life. Such is not the 
 case. But we have desired in the pre- 
 ceding paragraphs and chapters to 
 familiarize men of about forty-five and 
 beyond, with conditions which should 
 admonish them of the importance of 
 thoughtfulness, caution and modera- 
 tion. "Where the admonitions which we 
 have given are duly observed, virile 
 power, with all of its attendant endow- 
 ments and blessings, may be measurably 
 retained far on into advanced life. 
 Something of what the virile power in 
 old men of good bodily vigor usually 
 is, will appear in a later chapter upon 
 marriage. 
 
 In view of the fact that what has 
 been taught in the preceding pages 
 may bring a sense of sadness and re- 
 gret to those to whom this information 
 comes as a new revelation, it might be 
 well to close this chapter by a couple 
 of quotations which should bring satis-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 103 
 
 faction and pleasure to any who may 
 note in themselves the earliest moni- 
 tions of the decline of procreative 
 power and of sexual inclination. 
 
 " Generally," says Doctor Napheys, 
 " and always in the healthy state, step 
 by step with these physical changes the 
 passions likewise lose their force, and 
 change in nature. Love, which in 
 early youth was impetuous and sen- 
 sual, which in middle life was power- 
 ful, but controlled and centred in the 
 family, should at the decline of life be 
 freed from animal propensities, assume 
 a purely moral character, and be di- 
 rected toward the younger generations, 
 the children and grandchildren, or, 
 when these are not, should find its 
 proper sphere of activity in philan- 
 thropic endeavor and patriotic attach- 
 ment. 
 
 " Like the ancient philosopher, the 
 old should be able to recall the mem- 
 ory of departed pleasure without a sigh 
 of vain regret, and they should adapt 
 themselves with determined mind to the 
 altered condition of their physical life.
 
 104 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 " If this prospect seems a cheerless 
 one to the fiery youth or the vigorous 
 adult, let him remember that desire 
 subsides with power, and that it is still 
 within his reach, by the observance of 
 wise precautions and the proper rule of 
 life to extend the period of virility 
 considerably beyond the limit we have 
 set to it." 
 
 Dr. Lyman B. Sperry in his book en- 
 titled "Husband and Wife," says: 
 " Every elderly man should feel con- 
 tent to see his virility die a natural and 
 easy death, for thereby his general 
 vitality is preserved and his higher 
 powers are permitted to develop and 
 ripen undisturbed. 
 
 " What is there more beautiful and 
 inspiring than an aged married couple 
 who have lived together many years, 
 in sympathy with each other and in 
 harmony with God's beneficent laws ? 
 It is many years since they first met 
 and learned to love each other so 
 fondly and truly ; discovering their 
 mutual love, they pledged themselves 
 to each other for life, and united all
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIFE. 105 
 
 their worldly interests ; they estab- 
 lished a home ; they reared a family 
 of children, thereby obeying the in- 
 stinctive physiological law and also the 
 written command, to ' multiply and 
 replenish the earth and subdue it ' ; 
 they ripened and sweetened with the 
 years which fed the flame of their de- 
 voted and unselfish passion. Each 
 child, as it was added to the household, 
 enlarged their conception of respon- 
 sibility to humanity, and multiplied 
 the joy which resulted from consciously 
 cooperating with God in the perpetua- 
 tion and perfecting of the race. As 
 their children, one after another, left 
 the family hearth to establish homes 
 of their own, and as grandchildren 
 opportunely came to create anew the 
 healthful atmosphere of childhood, the 
 grandparents inhaled it with fresh de- 
 light, and the otherwise natural tend- 
 ency of old age, to depression and 
 stagnation, was prevented. Instead 
 of regrets, dissatisfaction, cynicism and 
 misanthropy, a genuine enthusiasm 
 for humanity naturally developed, and
 
 106 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 a grandly philanthropic spirit took 
 possession of the mind and heart — a 
 spirit that not only keeps one active 
 and sweet for this world, but fits one 
 for whatever of usefulness and glorious 
 experience the future may have in store 
 for us. 
 
 " The decline of virility, whether in 
 male or female, should not be accom- 
 panied by a corresponding decline in 
 general health, efficiency, or happi- 
 ness."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS. 
 
 Desire not to Alarm or Depress the Reader. — 
 Many Infirmities Avoided by Intelligence. — 
 Relation of Moderation to Disorders of Later 
 Life. — Physical and Mental Vigor for Later 
 Years. — Why Women are Less Subject to In- 
 firmities and Live Longer than Men. — Subcon- 
 scious Mind More Regnant in Woman. — Phys- 
 ical Infirmities Which are Due to Various and 
 Dissimilar Causes. — Insanity in Men. — Genito- 
 urinary Diseases. — Relation to Venereal Dis- 
 eases. — Seeking Competent and Reliable Med- 
 ical Counsel. 
 
 In writing to men of middle life 
 concerning the diseases and disordered 
 functions which are liable to occur in 
 the later years of life, we bring our- 
 selves to our task with a sense of 
 needed caution. We recognize that 
 among our readers there are likely to 
 be a large number of that class whose 
 attention cannot be directed to the 
 symptoms of various diseases without 
 
 107
 
 108 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 imagining that they are themselves 
 possessed of the entire catalogue. It 
 is to this large class that the patent 
 medicine man appeals by an array of 
 symptoms to which his readers respond 
 with an assurance that they are them- 
 selves afflicted with those very ail- 
 ments and consequently need the reme- 
 dies which it is asserted will be sure to 
 bring: relief and cure. It is much 
 better that the minds of such people 
 should not dwell upon diseases which 
 they are likely to imagine they already 
 possess, or are sure that they will have 
 before twelve months roll round. With 
 such people it were perhaps better that 
 their attention should not be called to 
 the diseases upon which their minds 
 are sure to dwell with injurious ef- 
 fects. 
 
 We desire rather to write to that 
 class of thoughtful individuals who 
 look calmly and deliberately at the 
 possibilities of the future, and who 
 with wise forethought and resolute 
 will bring themselves to the determina- 
 tion that they will by right living,
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 109 
 
 judicious diet, regular exercise, and 
 proper self-restraint avoid those in- 
 firmities which the future years are 
 likely to bring to other men of their 
 class. We write for those, who, being 
 forewarned will be forearmed for the 
 victories which they are sure to gain 
 over the infirmities which others who 
 abide in ignorance must suffer. 
 
 While it would be wrong for us to 
 abate the force of what we have said 
 in the preceding chapters concerning 
 the importance of moderation and tem- 
 perance in all things, and concerning 
 the modification of the physical life of 
 man which usually takes place at about 
 forty-five or fifty years of age, yet 
 there is no adequate reason why a 
 man of fifty years of age may not look 
 forward to twenty or thirty years of 
 splendid physical vigor and large use- 
 fulness in life if he will intelligently 
 acquaint himself with his modified en- 
 vironment and adapt himself to his 
 new physical requirements. 
 
 When we consider the more feeble 
 frame of woman, her more delicate
 
 110 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 
 
 nervous organization, and the many 
 affections and weaknesses peculiar to 
 her, we might naturally expect that 
 she would be more subject to sickness 
 and be likely to die earlier than her 
 stronger consort. Such, however, is 
 not always the case. As a rule women 
 suffer less from disease, and their 
 average duration of life is greater than 
 that of men. This larger mortality of 
 man over woman might be measurably 
 accounted for because of the large 
 number of men slain in war, killed in 
 the mines and upon railroads, the 
 awful ravages of the intoxicating cup, 
 the exhaustions which follow sexual 
 excess, the excitements which attend 
 political life, and the great nervous 
 and mental strains attendant upon the 
 conduct of commercial risks. The de- 
 mands and risks of maternity do not 
 perchance equal these perils to which 
 men are exposed. But there is another 
 and better explanation to be afforded. 
 While the nervous organization of 
 woman possibly makes it necessary for 
 her to suffer more acutely, yet it en-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. Ill 
 
 ables her to react and recuperate more 
 speedily when her physical powers 
 have been overtaxed by duty or de- 
 pleted by disease. 
 
 The activities and functions of the 
 body are under the control of either 
 the conscious or the subconscious 
 mind, or what are sometimes called 
 voluntary and involuntary movements 
 of the body. We walk, we eat, we 
 labor or rest in harmony with the 
 decisions of the will. Many of the 
 offices and functions of the body are 
 called into exercise by our own voli- 
 tion. There are other activities of the 
 body which are not under the control 
 of the will — the heart beats and the 
 lungs breathe, both when we are asleep 
 and when we are awake, whether we 
 are conscious or unconscious of their 
 action. The same is true with many 
 of the physical functions and activities. 
 
 In man, with his stronger will and his 
 greater mental grasp and grip there is 
 danger, especially with the more intel- 
 lectual and brainy, of having the will 
 interfere measurably with these sub-
 
 112 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 conscious or involuntary activities of 
 the body. 
 
 "With woman the reverse is the case. 
 In her the subconscious predominates. 
 "Whether sick or well the involuntary 
 movements of all the important vital 
 centres carry on their work with 
 greater regularity because of less in- 
 terference from the conscious and reso- 
 lute will. In man when attacked by 
 sickness the subconscious forces which 
 tend speedily to restore him are likely 
 to be interfered with and their work 
 hindered. In woman, when attacked 
 by sickness, the subconscious mind 
 dominates, the involuntary offices are 
 not interfered with, and the restora- 
 tion is more speedy and complete. 
 
 These explanations will account in a 
 great measure for the disparity which 
 exists between men and women in their 
 efforts to resist disease and to with- 
 stand physical dissolution. 
 
 As we have already said, it is not 
 our purpose to dwell at length upon 
 the infirmities and diseases which are 
 more likely to come at middle life and
 
 31 AN OF FORTY-FIVE. 113 
 
 beyond than earlier to those whose 
 physical inheritance or acquired weak- 
 ness does not enable them to withstand 
 their attacks. We would advise all 
 who suffer from gout, rheumatism, 
 vertigo, apoplexy, piles and other 
 physical ailments more common at 
 this period of life, to consult the best 
 local medical skill, rather than to de- 
 pend upon diagnosing their own case, 
 and selecting their own remedies, and 
 not to submit themselves to the imposi- 
 tions, extortions and injuries which so 
 many constantly suffer at the hands of 
 quacks and impostors. 
 
 There are, of course, instances in 
 which some of these diseases associate 
 themselves closely with excessive ven- 
 ery and come as the natural result of 
 venereal diseases, but this is by no 
 means the case with all of them. 
 "While paralysis is possible to almost 
 any man who has passed beyond middle 
 life, yet it almost never attacks a man 
 under fift} r , unless he has previously 
 suffered from syphilis, and where this 
 has been the case the paralysis is more 
 
 8
 
 114 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 likely to be the result of a diseased 
 thickening of the skull and a pressure 
 upon the brain, than of the rupture of 
 a blood vessel in the brain, which is 
 the ordinary cause of apoplexy. Apo- 
 plexy, if it does come to a man who 
 has never had syphilis, is not likely to 
 come until late in life ; while the form 
 of paralysis which comes as the result 
 of syphilis may attack its victim when 
 he is yet a young man. 
 
 While it might not be easy to ex- 
 plain how these signs of advancing 
 decrepitude stand related to the modi- 
 fications and changes which take place 
 in the sexual nature at middle life, yet 
 they are so related that they are much 
 more liable to follow after, than to 
 precede that change. It is therefore 
 important that the virile powers should 
 be preserved in health and vigor, in 
 order that the signs of advancing years 
 may be long postponed. It is, however, 
 unsafe to suppose that strict continence 
 alone will always secure immunity in 
 later life from all infirmity and dis- 
 ease. This result can best be secured,
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 115 
 
 not simply by giving attention to sex- 
 ual moderation, but also by large 
 judiciousness and temperance in all 
 things. Attention must be given to 
 the food, the sleep, the character and 
 the amount of physical and mental 
 effort, and also to diversions and rec- 
 reations. 
 
 In our examination of books upon 
 the subject of the reproductive life, we 
 have oftentimes noted a tendency to 
 ascribe an undue measure of these 
 physical infirmities to sexual causes. 
 There can be no doubt but that many 
 suffer from sexual excess, and as the 
 result of venereal diseases ; but it must 
 also be remembered that a man may 
 lead a pure, continent and correct life 
 and yet suffer many of the ills which 
 flesh is heir to, simply because he fails 
 properly to guard the questions of 
 diet, takes no exercise, seldom or 
 never bathes, while at the same time 
 he is perchance an excessive user of 
 tea, coffee, tobacco, or liquors; or he 
 may be guilty of none of these, but 
 simply fail at suitable times to cast
 
 116 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 out of the body the worn-out and 
 waste material which is permitted to 
 accumulate in the bowels and large 
 intestines. The man who would guard 
 against robbers, does well, not simply 
 to lock the front door, but to safeguard 
 every door and window in the house ; 
 and the man who desires to retain his 
 virile power, does well, not only to 
 guard his sexual relation, but to look 
 carefully after all the departments of 
 his physical needs. 
 
 Men of middle life and beyond whose 
 heart's action is impaired need to be 
 warned against all forms of sudden 
 exertion or strong emotion, which may 
 endanger their life. Hurrying to the 
 train, running after a street car, going 
 too rapidly upstairs, and other forms 
 of sudden and excessive physical effort 
 should be carefully guarded against. 
 It is necessary also to say that such 
 men are also more exposed to death 
 because of undue sexual excitement 
 attendant upon the act of coition. 
 Such an act is particularly dangerous 
 after a period of prolonged separation
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 117 
 
 from his wife, upon entering a second 
 marriage, or under any other circum- 
 stances where the conditions are such 
 as to produce more than usually strong 
 sexual emotion. 
 
 With women the tendency to in- 
 sanity is greater prior to middle life, 
 while with men, the reverse is the 
 case. This may be due to depleted 
 physical powers, or to great mental 
 anxiety in those years when strength 
 and hope so often fail because of family 
 and business anxieties and cares. In 
 some instances this is due to mental 
 depressions which come as the result 
 of sexual excesses and venereal dis- 
 eases, and in some instances to the ef- 
 fects of mental depression which some- 
 times attend aggravated forms of an 
 enlarged prostate gland. The cause 
 for this latter form of mental trouble 
 will appear in a later paragraph. 
 
 At, and after, the period of middle 
 life there are various forms of genito- 
 urinary diseases which require the 
 skilful attention of the specialist. This 
 is true particularly with men who have
 
 118 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 suffered in earlier life from gonorrhea, 
 or what is commonly called the clap. 
 Men, who in early life may have re- 
 garded this disease as of trifling mo- 
 ment, often awaken to the realization 
 of a very different fact when they 
 reach middle life. Years ago physi- 
 cians had not studied this disease in its 
 subsequent effects both upon the man 
 and upon his innocent and unsuspect- 
 ing wife, with sufficient carefulness to 
 have discovered but a fraction of its 
 later and awful consequences. It is 
 now found that the germs of gonor- 
 rhea may permeate into almost any 
 portion of the body, and propagate 
 with awful destructiveness wherever 
 they find a congenial soil. Its effects 
 are not simply local, nor is stricture its 
 only terrible bequest, but ulcers may 
 form in the kidneys and various other 
 portions of the body. Where these re- 
 sults are escaped at the time, nature 
 may still be holding in reserve terrible 
 scourges with which to punish the 
 guilty when they arrive at middle 
 life. "
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 119 
 
 When talking with a publisher upon 
 this subject some months ago he said 
 that the examination of the manu- 
 scripts and proof-sheets of medical 
 works had so impressed his mind with 
 the consequences which were likely to 
 follow in middle life as the result 
 of gonorrhea contracted in the earlier 
 years that he was constantly in mental 
 dread of what the future possibly had 
 in store for him. 
 
 A specialist connected with one of 
 the best medical colleges in this 
 country, recently said to the writer, 
 that if he were to find that he had con- 
 tracted gonorrhea, knowing its terrible 
 consequences as he did, he would be 
 frightened half to death. 
 
 One of the most eminent surgeons in 
 this county in a conversation with the 
 writer upon the same subject said, 
 knowing what he did about the two 
 diseases, gonorrhea and s} r philis, if he 
 were required to choose between the 
 two, recognizing the effects which are 
 likely to follow gonorrhea in the after 
 years, he did not know but that he
 
 120 MAN OF FOETY-FIVE. 
 
 would choose syphilis as the less of the 
 two great evils. 
 
 Later medical authority is every- 
 where agreed that many of the destruc- 
 tive influences which despoil young 
 wives of their bloom, converting the 
 strong, healthy and vigorous into con- 
 firmed physical wrecks, rendering them 
 incapable of motherhood, inflaming the 
 mucous coating of the vagina and the 
 womb, diseasing the fallopian tubes 
 and oftentimes rendering ovariotomy, 
 or the removal of the ovaries, necessary, 
 — not simply one, but all of these not 
 only may, but oftentimes do come to 
 unsuspecting wives as the result of 
 gonorrhea contracted by their hus- 
 bands either before or after marriage, 
 and subsequently communicated to 
 their wives. 
 
 "We have named these facts here, not 
 for the purpose of adding mental tor- 
 ture to physical suffering, but in order 
 that we might effectively enjoin upon 
 men who come into possession of this 
 knowledge the importance of using 
 their personal influence to disabuse the
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 121 
 
 minds of young men of the false ideas 
 which they have with regard to the in- 
 nocent nature of what all intelligent 
 physicians have now come to regard as 
 one of the most terrible diseases to 
 which mankind is exposed. 
 
 It is not well that the mind should 
 be filled with apprehensions with re- 
 gard to diseases and maladies which 
 may never come. Indeed, worry itself 
 may bring on some of the very dis- 
 eases which the person is anxious to 
 escape. Should gravel or stone in the 
 bladder, disease of the kidneys, swell- 
 ing of the glandular structure, or diffi- 
 culty in relieving the bladder make 
 their appearance, no valuable time 
 should be lost in consulting a competent 
 and reliable physician. 
 
 The treatment of the subject of hy- 
 pertrophy or enlarged prostate is re- 
 served for a special chapter, but before 
 leaving the subject of functional dis- 
 orders we should say something with 
 regard to that abnormal class of per- 
 sons, who so often receive execration 
 when they deserve consideration from
 
 122 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 their fellow-men, and from the profes- 
 sion, medical or surgical, sympathy and 
 help. Doctor Acton in writing of 
 " functional disorders in persons who 
 know the consequences of sexual ex- 
 cesses but cannot control their pas- 
 sions," says : " This is a class of per- 
 sons the consulting surgeon occasionally 
 meets with, who are deserving of great 
 sympathy. Their passions depend too 
 frequently on a state of excitement 
 over which they themselves have no 
 control, although its origin may be 
 traced to their own excesses. These 
 patients come to ask our assistance, 
 not with any object of obtaining 
 power, but because they suffer from 
 urgent desire, which a careful examina- 
 tion of the case often convinces us is 
 fictitious, and dependent upon some 
 irritation going on in one part or other 
 of the canal. In some persons, a full 
 bladder will occasion it ; in others, irri- 
 tation about the rectum, preceding from 
 worms or hemorrhoids ; in others, again, 
 acidity of urine will induce a morbid 
 craving that is often most distressing
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 123 
 
 to the sufferer. Frequently the affec- 
 tion depends upon neuralgia of the 
 bladder, or stone in that viscus. In 
 other instances, I have seen reason to 
 attribute it to some affection of the 
 skin covering the generative organs, 
 causing local excitement. It is all 
 very well to desire such patients to re- 
 sist these morbid desires, but until ap- 
 propriate local treatment is prescribed, 
 there can be little hope of amendment. 
 Some few think that this unnatural 
 excitement is healthy. They pride 
 themselves upon it, appear astonished 
 at the surgeon wishing to remove the 
 cause, and cannot comprehend that 
 their constitution has been much re- 
 duced by the fatigue which the organs 
 have undergone. Ultimately, for the 
 most part, common sense triumphs, 
 and they feel intensely grateful for the 
 relief they obtained."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ENLARGEMENT OF THE PEOSTATE. 
 
 General Prevalence Among Older Men. — How It 
 Manifests Itself. — Hesitation in Beginning to 
 Void the Bladder. — Reduced Force of Stream. — 
 Location and Function or Office of the Pros- 
 tate. — Conditions Which Attend Its Enlarge- 
 ment. — Relation of the Prostate Gland to Men- 
 tal Trouble. — Cause of Enlargement. — Irritation 
 of the Bladder. — The Senior Doctor Gross 
 Quoted. — Precautionary Measures. — The Au- 
 thor's Experience and Method by Which He 
 Secured a Gratifying Measure of Relief. 
 
 There is one functional disorder, so 
 general among men of middle life, that 
 all men should have an intelligent 
 understanding of its nature, and also 
 of its cause. The affection to which 
 we refer is known as " enlargement of 
 the prostate gland." The prevalence 
 of hypertrophied or enlarged prostate 
 may be judged by any person who 
 frequents public urinals. In most in- 
 
 125
 
 126 3IAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 stances it will be found that men of 
 middle life experience some hesitation 
 in beginning the voiding or emptying 
 of the bladder. Where this is not the 
 case, it will nevertheless be generally 
 found that the stream which is thrown 
 lacks considerably in force. These 
 simple indications are easily observed 
 by those who have the intelligence to 
 note the facts. 
 
 Doctor Kellogg in writing upon this 
 subject says, " Many persons have a 
 considerable degree of enlargement of 
 the prostate without being aware of 
 the fact, the increase in size being so 
 gradual that it is not observed until so 
 great a degree of obstruction to the 
 passage of urine is produced as to re- 
 quire a considerable degree of volun- 
 tary expulsive force. The size of the 
 stream is not usually lessened, but the 
 force is greatly diminished. The pa- 
 tient urinates with much greater fre- 
 quency than usual, and as the disease 
 advances, considerable irritability and 
 discomfort in the rectum is occasioned 
 by the frequent and violent straining
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 127 
 
 effort required to evacuate the bladder. 
 After a time, the obstruction becomes 
 so great that the bladder cannot be 
 completely evacuated by any effort on 
 the part of the patient. When it be- 
 comes greatly distended, a small 
 quantity of urine may be forced out 
 by violent efforts, and during sleep a 
 sort of overflow occurs, which may be 
 the first symptom to which the pa- 
 tient's attention is seriously directed. 
 The retained urine decomposes, becom- 
 ing alkaline, irritating the mucous 
 membrane, and setting up a catarrh or 
 inflammation of the bladder and a 
 great variety of attendant disorders 
 and inconveniences which, if neglected, 
 may lead to fatal results. We have 
 frequently met cases of this kind in 
 which the bladder contained almost 
 incredible quantities of urine which 
 had probably been retained for weeks. 
 In some cases, possibly the bladder 
 had not been fully emptied for 
 months." 
 
 Now it would be misleading to con- 
 clude that any large proportion of men
 
 128 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 of middle life and beyond experience 
 all that is described in the preceding 
 paragraph. Many men go well on- 
 ward into the advanced years of life 
 without experiencing any serious in- 
 convenience from the enlargement of 
 the prostate gland. It is stated, how- 
 ever, that fully one-third of the men 
 who have attained fifty years have 
 more or less enlargement of the pros- 
 tate. 
 
 As this department of our subject is 
 of such universal interest we may 
 properly be expected to acquaint the 
 reader with its location, its office and 
 the conditions which attend its hyper- 
 trophy or enlargement. 
 
 The prostate gland is situated just 
 before the neck of the bladder in males 
 and surrounds the beginning of the 
 urethra, the duct which leads the 
 urine from the bladder into the outer 
 world. It is situated on the under and 
 posterior part of the neck of the 
 bladder, so as to surround the lower 
 side of the urethra. During the repro- 
 ductive years it is the office of the
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 129 
 
 prostate gland to secrete that fluid 
 which imparts life to the spermatozoa, 
 or germs, transmitted by the male in 
 the act of coition. 
 
 "Why the enlargement of the pros- 
 tate gland should ever result in men- 
 tal trouble will be readily understood 
 when the nature of its office is com- 
 prehended. In order that it may do 
 its work efficiently, it is necessary to 
 be connected with the outer world 
 by nerve centres located in almost 
 every part of the body. It is well 
 known that sexual desire is begotten 
 not only by what one sees, or by the 
 word spoken into the ear, but by the 
 sense of smell and of feeling as well. 
 If the reproductive organs were not 
 thus intimately connected with all of 
 the senses, they would not properly 
 respond to the divine intention in the 
 act of transmitting life. It is because 
 of this nervous relationship to the 
 brain and all the nerve centres that 
 solitary vice and sexual excesses, as 
 well as enlarged prostate or any dis- 
 order of the reproductive organs is 
 
 9
 
 130 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 liable to be complicated with nervous 
 results, which, in extreme cases, may 
 even produce insanity. 
 
 "When the male passes the period of 
 reproductive energy and enters the 
 period of larger sexual repose, the 
 prostate generally loses its function and 
 hypertrophy or enlargement, at least 
 to some extent, generally ensues. In 
 most instances no inconvenience is ex- 
 perienced beyond that of a slight delay 
 in beginning the voiding of the bladder 
 and the attendant diminished force of 
 the stream. 
 
 The instances, however, are numer- 
 ous in which the pressure of the pros- 
 tate upon the urethra produces, not 
 only the two effects named in the pre- 
 ceding paragraph, but causes that the 
 bladder cannot be completely emptied 
 when urinating. The amount of urine 
 retained in the bladder may not be 
 more than a few tablespoonfuls ; but it 
 being the last, this remnant is likely to 
 contain some sediment, and the decom- 
 position, which is likely to follow, is 
 liable to set up an irritation at the neck
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 131 
 
 of the bladder. This local irritation is 
 usually first noted because of an irri- 
 tability of the bladder which occasions 
 discomfort at night, gives a sense of 
 fullness and causes the patient to 
 desire to empty the bladder during 
 the hours formerly given to uninter- 
 rupted sleep. Where these occasions 
 are not repeated too frequently during 
 the night, little attention is given to 
 the inconvenience, and the matter is 
 likely to be passed by without any 
 thoughtful consideration. If a slight 
 cold should settle in these parts, an ina- 
 bility to retain the urine for any con- 
 siderable time may be experienced, and 
 after each urination water may continue 
 to drip from the urethra, and such a 
 condition is likely to call the attention 
 of the patient to the importance of con- 
 sulting a physician, and the adoption of 
 such measures as are calculated to ar- 
 rest the further progress of the disease 
 for months or even years. 
 
 According to the senior Professor 
 Gross, formerlv of the Jefferson Medical 
 College, the causes which result in en-
 
 132 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 largement of the prostate " act in a 
 slow and permanent manner. "What- 
 ever, therefore, has a tendency to keep 
 up habitual engorgement in the organ, 
 may be considered as being capable of 
 producing the affection. Augmented 
 action necessarily occasions an aug- 
 mented afflux of blood and a corre- 
 sponding increase of nutrition. Dimin- 
 ished action has a reversed effect. 
 Amongst the more frequently enumer- 
 ated causes of the malady are excessive 
 venery, stricture of the urethra, disease 
 of the bladder, horseback exercise, gon- 
 orrhea, and the employment of stimu- 
 lating diuretics; but, in general, the 
 influence of these causes is apparent 
 rather than real. They are, no doubt, 
 all capable of inducing the disease; 
 but, on the other hand, it is equally 
 certain that they are often accused 
 when they are entirely innocent. Some 
 of the very worst cases of hypertrophy 
 of the prostate occur in old men who 
 have led the chastest of lives, who have 
 not ridden on horseback for forty or 
 fifty years, and who have never had
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 133 
 
 the slightest disease of any kind of the 
 urethra." 
 
 In some cases there is considerable 
 sensation and burning at the time the 
 urine is voided, in others the bowels 
 may be emptied with inconvenience or 
 pain, and the lower bowel never feel 
 completely emptied even after the most 
 thorough purgation. In advanced 
 chronic cases, or in acute attacks, there 
 may be uneasiness or even pain in sit- 
 ting because of the pressure of the 
 parts which adjoin the prostate, which 
 is situated only about an inch and a 
 half or two inches from the anus. 
 "Where such conditions exist, sexual in- 
 tercourse, stimulating foods, tea, coffee, 
 tobacco, liquor and vinegar, and even 
 tarts and acids should be avoided, to- 
 gether with all griping purgatives. 
 Cushioned chairs should not be used as 
 they cause a heating of the parts, and 
 are consequently injurious. Physicians 
 warn their patients against horse- 
 back riding, and in many instances 
 prohibit bicycling, especially where 
 the saddle is such as to cause the
 
 134 31 AN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 slightest pressure upon the anus and 
 perineum. 
 
 In the catalogue of injurious influ- 
 ences, medical books also enumerate 
 the dangers of persons who spend hours 
 daily in air impregnated with the odor 
 of tobacco, or where they inhale the 
 odors of spirituous liquors. In extreme 
 cases rest in a recumbent position is of 
 great service, but the patient should 
 be encouraged to moderate exercise in 
 the open air during pleasant weather. 
 
 "We have known quacks and charla- 
 tans to insinuate that an enlarged pros- 
 tate comes solely as a result of excess- 
 ive coition, and to promise complete 
 recovery to those who abstain totally 
 from the sexual relation and take the 
 expensive drugs which they prescribe. 
 Such insinuations and pretences are 
 thoroughly unreliable. The sexual re- 
 lation should of course be carefully 
 guarded ; and what we have to say in 
 addition upon this subject will appear in 
 a subsequent chapter upon the marriage 
 of men of middle life and beyond. 
 
 Believing that the experience of the
 
 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 135 
 
 writer may prove suggestive to 
 younger men and serviceable to men 
 of middle life he is inclined to in- 
 troduce at this point some facts con- 
 cerning the enlargement of the pros- 
 tate gland which he would otherwise 
 prefer to omit. Eighteen years ago, 
 when thirty-five years of age, the 
 writer was among the first clergymen 
 in this country to adopt the bicycle as 
 a means of recreation. For some six 
 years I rode the high wheel, usually 
 devoting the month of August to a 
 tour of several hundred miles. The 
 saddles at that time, and for years af ter- 
 ward, were unsanitary and injurious in 
 their effects because of the pressure 
 against the perineum, and the conse- 
 quent irritation of the prostate gland. 
 As the riding was at that time largely 
 confined to young men, the results of 
 the unsanitary saddles, rigid frames and 
 excessive vibration were scarcely real- 
 ized even by the medical profession. 
 What these consequences have been to 
 many men, it required the later years 
 to disclose. After several years of
 
 136 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 cycling, I discovered that in the fall of 
 the year, for a period of a couple of 
 months, there was a tendency to 
 waken at night for the purpose of 
 emptying the bladder. Hy love of 
 cycling inclined me to attribute this 
 to the eating of melons, peaches, 
 grapes and such other fruits as con- 
 tained a large quantity of water. 
 With the early winter these conditions 
 usually passed away and did not return 
 until the succeeding summer and fall. 
 Some six or eight years ago I noticed 
 that the disturbed tendency at night 
 was projected over most of the year, 
 and gradually increased until it became 
 necessary to empty the bladder, from 
 one to three and four times each night. 
 Two years ago I began to give this mat- 
 ter medical attention. The difficulty, 
 however, has continued, and during the 
 past year I have seldom passed a night 
 without the necessity of urinating at 
 least twice, but generally three and 
 four times, and occasionally as many as 
 six and seven times. 
 
 To avoid being broken of my rest
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 137 
 
 and the danger of exposing myself to 
 taking cold I early formed the habit 
 of lifting the receiver into the bed and 
 voiding the bladder while lying on my 
 side. The quantity of urine passed 
 was always small, but the necessity to 
 void it was imperative, if I desired to 
 sleep. "While the annoyance was al- 
 ways unpleasant, the most disastrous 
 result was the interruption of sleep. 
 When wearied and nervous, it was 
 oftentimes difficult to resume perfect 
 rest and sleep, and that phase of the 
 difficulty assumed the greater gravity. 
 
 Some months ago in my reading I 
 came across a suggestion which I re- 
 solved to enlarge upon and experi- 
 ment with. It was the flushing and 
 cleansing of the rectum by the injec- 
 tion of tepid or warm w T ater just before 
 retiring. 
 
 As physicians know, the prostate 
 gland rests against the rectum and is 
 separated from it only by the thin 
 tissues which compose it. The prostate 
 rests against the rectum only about an 
 inch and a half or two inches from the
 
 138 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 anus, and by an experienced finger 
 can be readily felt and distinguished 
 when inserted into the orifice at the 
 lower extremity of the body. It is 
 well known that constipation or an ac- 
 cumulation of effete matter in the 
 colon and rectum tend to irritate and 
 aggravate the conditions which accom- 
 pany enlargement of the prostate. 
 
 Where constipation is constitutional 
 or temporary, considerable relief will 
 be found by drinking a glass or more 
 of water immediately upon rising in the 
 morning. This tends to cleanse the 
 stomach and smaller intestines and to 
 move the bowels, in the course of an 
 hour. The medical teaching of to-day 
 is to the effect that few persons drink a 
 sufficient amount of water to cleanse 
 properly the sewerage of the body. 
 Both the kidneys and the bowels are 
 frequently congested and impeded in 
 their work by a lack of sufficient fluid 
 to flush and carry out of the body 
 those particles of effete matter which 
 are permitted to accumulate in the in- 
 testines, bowels and bladder. It is
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 139 
 
 doubtless true that many persons suf- 
 fer from headache and other ailments 
 that would be greatly relieved by 
 drinking a greatly increased quantity of 
 water. 
 
 "Where constipation is persistent or 
 even temporary the flushing of the 
 colon or large intestine by the in- 
 jection of water at a temperature of 
 from ninety to one hundred and two, 
 using a fountain syringe, and injecting 
 the water while the body is in a re- 
 cumbent position, or better, lying upon 
 the right side or resting upon the 
 knees with the forehead down upon 
 the floor, are possibly the best posi- 
 tions to secure the passage of the 
 water to the extreme end of the colon. 
 Such flushings taken once or twice a 
 week to relieve temporary need, until 
 a better order can be established, will 
 be found very serviceable. The influx 
 of water should not be so rapid as to 
 cause discomfort at the time or griping 
 afterward. 
 
 The flushing of the rectum, however, 
 differs from the flushing of the colon
 
 140 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 in two or three particulars. The flush- 
 ing of the rectum is taken in a sitting 
 posture, over a closet, and as the water 
 accumulates in the rectum it is per- 
 mitted to pass out while the stream 
 continues to flow in from the fountain 
 syringe. The anus and the nozzle or 
 tube should be carefully anointed with 
 cosmoline, oil or castile soap, so as to 
 guard against any possible injury to 
 the tissues. If the longer tube, gener- 
 ally used by women for vaginal flush- 
 ings, is used, it may be passed further 
 up into the rectum by pointing the as- 
 cending end toward the back of the 
 body as it is gradually passed upward, 
 after the end has been inserted into 
 the anus, and the water begins to flow 
 into the rectum. 
 
 The introduction of this water into 
 the rectum accomplishes several im- 
 portant results. It cleanses the rec- 
 tum, removes pressure from the pros- 
 tate, relieves from local irritation, en- 
 ables the bladder to be thoroughly 
 emptied before retiring and thus pre- 
 vents the decomposition of urine and
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. Ill 
 
 irritation in the bladder, enabling the 
 patient to enjoy a night of greater re- 
 pose and thus contributes to a general 
 physical improvement and increased en- 
 durance. 
 
 AVhen beginning these flushings I 
 made a careful record each week of 
 the result. "When I began I was uni- 
 formly wakened three or four times 
 each night, and sometimes oftener. I 
 abstained from the use of all tarts and 
 sours except lemonade, and carefully 
 avoided eve^thing which would pro- 
 duce a sense of local irritability. The 
 first week I filled the two-quart bag 
 twice with water and used the flush- 
 ings morning and evening. I immedi- 
 ately found the local irritation allayed 
 and a sense of increased sexual repose. 
 During this first week I was not awak- 
 ened any night more than twice, and 
 two nights during the week but once 
 each night. The second week I was 
 away from home for three nights, 
 omitted the irrigation, but was not 
 wakened any night more than twice. 
 The third week I abandoned the flush-
 
 142 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 ings in the morning, but continued 
 them each night. Five nights I slept 
 with only one waking, the irritation at 
 the neck of the bladder gradually sub- 
 sided, and its capacity to receive and 
 retain an increasing quantity of urine 
 gradually returned. I drank lemonade 
 with impunity during those August 
 days without feeling the slightest in- 
 jurious effects, but avoided its use be- 
 fore retiring at night. The fourth 
 week I passed two successive nights 
 without waking, with all local and 
 general physical conditions greatly im- 
 proved. 
 
 The fifth and sixth weeks I had 
 nights in which I slept from start to 
 finish — eight hours — without waking, 
 and four of these nights were in suc- 
 cession. The other nights I awoke but 
 once, save one night after eating freely 
 of watermelon in the morning and at 
 noon preceding. 
 
 I have been thus explicit because 
 I believe the suggestion a very valua- 
 ble one. It is simple, inexpensive, and 
 when properly performed can do no
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 143 
 
 possible injury, although as a rule I 
 recommend all and especially those 
 who are under medical treatment to 
 adopt or follow only what their physi- 
 cians prescribe. 
 
 A specialist in genito-urinary dis- 
 eases, and another specialist of rectal 
 diseases both assure me that no possible 
 injury can result to any one from the 
 use of the flushings I have here de- 
 scribed. No one should use water of 
 a temperature below eighty or above 
 one hundred and two, unless acting 
 under the direction of a physician. 
 
 It should be noted that when flush- 
 ing the colon for the relief of constipa- 
 tion before retiring, it is important to 
 empty this organ carefully as the 
 water which is retained will accumu- 
 late during the night in the bladder 
 and make it necessary to empty that 
 reservoir more frequently. This, how- 
 ever, is not the case when using only 
 the flushings of the rectum. In the 
 flushings of the rectum I have used 
 water from ninety to one hundred de- 
 grees with preference for the latter
 
 144 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 temperature, and have regularly re- 
 filled the two-quart bag the second 
 time at each flushing. 
 
 I have not named this experiment 
 with the thought that this method of 
 treatment is wholly new or has been 
 left untried by physicians on genito- 
 urinary diseases, but I have named 
 them to show what was accomplished 
 by only a little attention in a few 
 weeks and all this after these aggra- 
 vated conditions had continued through 
 a series of years. 
 
 Several months have at this writing 
 elapsed since this experiment was made 
 and discontinued. The benefits which 
 were secured by these flushings of the 
 rectum have proven to be worth all 
 they cost, as they have been, not 
 wholly, but measurably permanent, in 
 their results. I have not sought to 
 hold out the hope that such treatment 
 would result in a permanent cure, but 
 I am confident that in many cases 
 it will give a temporary, but much 
 appreciated relief.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 TIIE MARRIAGE OF MEN OF MIDDLE 
 LIFE 
 
 The Period Ordained by Nature for Marriage. — 
 Question of Marriage at Middle Life, a Com- 
 plex One. — Disparities of Age, Culture, Posi- 
 tion, etc. — Conditions which Follow where One 
 is Young and the Other has Passed the Climac- 
 teric Period. — Considerate Views of Doctor Ac- 
 ton. — Continuance of Virile Power in Old Men. 
 — Diminution of Sexual Inclination and Loss of 
 Erectile Power. — The Primal Purpose of Mar- 
 riage. — The Right of Children to be Well Born. 
 — Character of Animals the Product of Old Sires 
 and Dams. — Physical, Mental and Moral Char- 
 acter of Children of Aged Parents. — Propriety 
 of Marriages Induced by Other than Physical 
 Considerations. — Marriages which are Justifi- 
 able. — Dr. Dio Lewis' Letter to Rich Man of 
 Sixty-six About to Marry Frivolous Girl of 
 Eighteen. — Important Advice of Various Physi- 
 cians Quoted. 
 
 The time best suited for the mar- 
 riage of both men and women is when 
 full maturity is reached. That this is 
 the time which is intended by the 
 
 10 145
 
 146 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 Creator becomes manifest to any one 
 who studies the physical, intellectual, 
 moral, social, financial and other bene- 
 fits which are to be derived from mar- 
 riage. If natural laws were not inter- 
 fered with by artificial conditions, it is 
 likely that nearly all people would 
 marry by that time. Questions of edu- 
 cation, finance, and other considera- 
 tions sometimes properly, and some- 
 times improperly, greatly defer the 
 period of marriage. Whatever may 
 be gained in some respects by defer- 
 ring marriage until middle life is ap- 
 proached, the postponement is, never- 
 theless, in many particulars, one of the 
 greatest real losses that either man or 
 woman can suffer in this relation. 
 
 It would be neither wise nor exact 
 to lay down a universal rule against 
 all marriages of men of middle life. 
 There are instances in which marriage 
 at middle life may prove a manifest 
 benefit to both parties. The great ob- 
 jection to be made to marriages at this 
 period, is the great disparity of age, 
 position, culture, etc., which usually
 
 31 AN OF FORTY-FIVE. 147 
 
 exist in such cases. Indeed, the large 
 majority of cases to be heartily disap- 
 proved, because of their terrible conse- 
 quences, might easily be classified under 
 the head of disparity of age, and the 
 differences which grow out of wealth 
 upon the one hand, and poverty upon 
 the other. 
 
 A considerable disparity of age, even 
 where persons are married in early life, 
 constitutes a very serious objection. 
 Instances can everywhere be found in 
 which young men have married girls 
 ten and even fifteen years their senior, 
 who have lived happily for a period, 
 but when the climacteric period or 
 change of life came to the wife, such 
 differences and discords arose as led 
 to great unhappiness, and in some in- 
 stances to injustice and even to suicide 
 or murder. Where the reverse is the 
 case and the man is ten or fifteen years 
 the senior of his wife, when the period 
 of sexual repose has come to him and 
 he has found himself physically unable 
 to respond without weakness and dis- 
 comfort to demands which previously
 
 148 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 afforded him pleasure, that where either 
 one or both parties were not intelligent 
 with regard to the cause of such phys- 
 ical changes, embarrassment and dejec- 
 tion have been followed by conditions 
 which preyed upon the mind, and have 
 not unfrequently led even to suicide. 
 
 This matter of disparity of age is a 
 very serious consideration, even to 
 those who marry in the earlier periods 
 of life. Intelligence with regard to 
 the actual conditions which are certain 
 to ensue, and great consideration and 
 tenderness on the part of the younger 
 for the older partner are the only req- 
 uisites which can ever avert the un- 
 happiness and misery which are other- 
 wise inseparable from ill-mating be- 
 cause of disparity of age. 
 
 Dr. William Acton sounds clear 
 notes of warnings upon these subjects. 
 He does not set himself wholly against 
 the marriage of men of middle life, but 
 after insisting upon the importance of 
 being equally yoked together in mat- 
 ters of age, position, purposes and 
 tastes, he has the following to say in
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 149 
 
 reference to instances which are per- 
 missible and are to be encouraged. 
 " I must not be supposed to set m}' face 
 against every elderly man marrying if 
 they will, but let them select a suitable 
 companion. What I object to is De- 
 cember allying itself with May. Daily 
 do I give my sanction to a man ad- 
 vanced in life (but left on the strand, 
 without relations or friends) marrying 
 if he has the wish, and his health is 
 good, and he can select a lady of suit- 
 able age. My opinion is, that if such 
 a man avoids marital excesses, the best 
 thing he can do with a view of pro- 
 longing life is to marry. Certainly I 
 can say that the results I have wit- 
 nessed have borne out the correctness 
 of the advice I have given ; marriage, 
 even late in life, has conduced, in 
 numerous instances that have come 
 under my observation, to the happiness 
 and longevity of many elderly people. 
 It is only against injudicious and ill 
 assorted marriages and consequent in- 
 jurious excesses that I set my face. 
 " Subsequent and more extensive ex-
 
 150 3IAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 perience, however, has assured me, 
 that, in the present state of civilization, 
 there are many cases in which a man 
 may marry late in life with great ad- 
 vantage. I now submit a patient who 
 desires to marry late in life to a close 
 examination. If I find him a hale per- 
 son with a sound constitution, I see no 
 objection to his settling, provided al- 
 ways he selects a suitable person as re- 
 gards age, position, etc. That which 
 alone I object to, in consideration of 
 his future health and happiness is his 
 uniting himself with a young, gay or 
 volatile girl. I am quite certain that 
 marriage, even late in life, contributes 
 to a man's longevity, if the woman he 
 chooses is suitable as regards age, dis- 
 position, and temper. The observa- 
 tions already made in this chapter par- 
 ticularly apply here. If the newly 
 married man will but be moderate and 
 commit no excess of any kind, I am an 
 advocate for his marriage rather than 
 that he should remain single. The 
 reader should recollect that in these 
 cases the surgeon does not advise all
 
 3IAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 151 
 
 elderly people to marry, but he sees no 
 valid reason why an attachment al- 
 ready formed should be broken off 
 merely because a hale and hearty 
 bridegroom is advanced in life. I am 
 cognizant of many instances of persons 
 who are now living very comfortably 
 and happily, who married late in life. 
 In these instances no ill consequences 
 have happened. If, however, an 
 elderly man is disposed to marry be- 
 neath him, or to contract marriage 
 with a young and worldly woman, I 
 think his medical adviser should do all 
 in his power to dissuade and warn him 
 of the danger he is about to incur. 
 Nevertheless, experience teaches us 
 that the advice is but little heeded. I 
 am well aware that many cases can be 
 cited in which men have married late 
 in life, and had families. Undoubted 
 instances of virility at the age of nearly 
 one hundred years are on record ; but 
 in these cases the general bodily vigor 
 has been preserved in a very remark- 
 able degree. The ordinary rule seems 
 to be, that sexual power is not retained
 
 152 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 by the male to any considerable extent 
 after the age of sixty or sixty-five." 
 
 It -would be both safe and thoroughly 
 correct to say that instances where 
 men have possessed virile power and 
 become parents at the age of eighty 
 and one hundred years are not only 
 exceptional, but even abnormal. They 
 are counterparts of instances in which 
 female children at the age of six 
 and seven have menstruated, or very 
 young male children been able to emit 
 semen. The man who calls his repro- 
 ductive power into frequent exercise 
 after passing forty years of age is not 
 likely to retain virile power even until 
 he is sixty. These powers can only be 
 preserved by being safeguarded, by 
 considerateness and by great mod- 
 eration. 
 
 The secretion of semen continues for 
 a considerable number of years, even 
 after the testicles, or male appendages 
 have considerably atrophied, or dimin- 
 ished in size, and even after sexual in- 
 clination has largely disappeared and 
 erectile power been lost. The secretion
 
 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 153 
 
 of semen takes place in old men, al- 
 though very slowly, just like the saliva, 
 the bile and other fluids of the body ; 
 but when once the period of loss and 
 decay has arrived, no man can be sub- 
 jected to its repeated loss without seri- 
 ous injury. Indeed it is a good thing 
 that nature sounds a warning by fol- 
 lowing the reproductive act in old 
 men with a sense of great languor. 
 
 Not only do sexual inclinations 
 diminish and erectile power gradually 
 disappear, but the act is frequently 
 attended by results which are the most 
 unsatisfactory in their character. 
 Doctor Acton says : " several most 
 intelligent and observant elderly per- 
 sons have assured me that as they have 
 advanced in life the emission of semen 
 has been attended with absolute pain — 
 a sort of scalding or burning as the 
 fluid passes. This is so great that they 
 dread the occurrence, as it takes away 
 from the pleasure of the act." 
 
 It is universally conceded that the 
 great primal purpose of marriage is 
 the perpetuity of the human race ; and
 
 154 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 the other purpose, which is almost 
 equally important, the happiness and 
 temporal and eternal well-being of the 
 two persons who enter into the mar- 
 riage relation. 
 
 The period at which procreation and 
 reproduction are most likely to take 
 place is during the decade which fol- 
 lows the marriage of young persons 
 who have just attained their full bod- 
 ily maturity. After this first decade 
 the probabilities of conception are 
 gradually diminished, but not wholly 
 removed, until after the period of 
 change of life in woman and of the 
 loss of virile power upon the part of 
 man, when the woman is no longer 
 able to conceive or the man to trans- 
 mit or beget life. 
 
 Every child born into the world has 
 a right to demand of its parents that 
 it shall be well born — that it shall 
 have its full equipment of physical, in- 
 tellectual and moral power. This re- 
 sult can only be attained where both 
 parents are possessed of those qualities 
 and endowments which they desire to
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 153 
 
 transmit. Life is naturally divided 
 into three periods, the earlier which is 
 one of rapid growth ; this is followed 
 by a period of balanced existence, after 
 which comes the later years of loss and 
 decay. It will therefore be readily 
 seen, that when the parents have not 
 attained their bodily growth, or when 
 they are themselves subject to the loss 
 and decay attendant upon the later 
 years of life, it would be impossible to 
 beget and bring forth children pos- 
 sessed of the best endowments. It is 
 only during the period of balanced ex- 
 istence that parenthood can be exer- 
 cised and children born into the world 
 with their best possible endowments. 
 
 In his book entitled "The Trans- 
 mission of Life," Dr. George H. 
 Napheys says : " The physiological 
 change which takes place in the secre- 
 tion in advanced years deprives it of 
 the power of transmitting life, and at 
 last the vigor of the function is lost. 
 The spermatozoa, which in manhood 
 are bodies formed of a conical head 
 and a long, vibrating extremity, lose
 
 156 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 the latter portion of their body, and 
 become mere rounded cells, without 
 the power of independent motion. 
 With the impotence of decrepitude, 
 however, we have little to do, and 
 as to its prevention — cure, there is 
 none." 
 
 Dr. Acton says, " Professed breeders 
 of animals refuse to rear the produce 
 of old sires and dams, and have 
 learned to recognize this class of 
 young stock by several marks, as for 
 instance the deeper hollows over the 
 eyes, and by the sunken eye itself. 
 So well are these facts known to horse- 
 dealers, that they refuse to purchase 
 young horses presenting these appear- 
 ances, being convinced that they will 
 not stand work, or turn out well. As 
 far as my experience goes, no doubt 
 can exist that old men may and do 
 retain the power of connection under 
 the influence of certain stimuli. . . . 
 Such men may have children, but 
 experience teaches us that these in- 
 fants are difficult to rear; they are 
 not the best specimens of the English
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 157 
 
 race. Too many are of a nervous, 
 irritable frame, their intellectual quali- 
 ties are not equal to those of the father, 
 and they suffer as they progress in life 
 from affections of the brain and nervous 
 system. . . . "We are, therefore, forced 
 to the conclusion that the children of 
 old men have an inferior chance of 
 life ; and facts daily observed confirm 
 our deductions. Look but at the 
 progeny of men who marry late in 
 life, what is its value ? As far as I 
 have seen, it is of the worst kind — 
 spoilt childhood, feeble and precocious 
 youth, extravagant manhood, early and 
 premature death." 
 
 Doctor Gardner says, " Children, the 
 issue of old men, are habitually marked 
 by a serious and sad air spread over 
 their countenances, which is manifestly 
 very opposite to the infantile expres- 
 sion which so delights one in the little 
 children of the same age engendered 
 under other conditions. As they grow 
 up, their features take on more and 
 more the senile character, so much so 
 that every one remarks it, and the
 
 158 31 AN OF FOE TY- FIVE. 
 
 world regards it as a natural thing. 
 The old mothers pretend that it is ' an 
 old head on young shoulders.' They 
 predict an early death to these children, 
 and the event frequently justifies the 
 horoscope. Our attention has for many 
 years been fixed upon this point, and 
 we can affirm that the greater part of 
 the offspring of these connections are 
 weak, torpid, lymphatic, if not scrofu- 
 lous, and do not promise a long career." 
 
 All this is due to the deteriorated 
 condition of the seminal fluid. The 
 parent no longer has that vitality and 
 strength to transmit, which is essential 
 in the production of healthy and happy 
 children. 
 
 But the child that is born to a mother 
 when she is approaching the period of 
 a change of life, or is begotten by a 
 father who has passed that period 
 when the physical powers have begun 
 to decline, will not only come into the 
 world defrauded of its inalienable rights 
 to a good inheritance of physical, intel- 
 lectual and moral endowment ; but will 
 be the child of parents who have passed
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 159 
 
 the flower of their manhood and woman- 
 hood, and who are no longer in sym- 
 pathy even with a healthy child, and 
 much less with one that is born weak, 
 nervous and in need of the tenderest 
 sympathies and considerations possible. 
 One of the reasons why God de- 
 prives men and women in middle life 
 of the power of transmitting and bear- 
 ing children is because upon the parent 
 is laid the obligation to provide for the 
 support and nurture of the child until 
 it has reached the years of independ- 
 ence, and is capable of self-support. 
 The man who accepts the responsibili- 
 ties of a father after he has passed 
 middle life, is assuming obligations 
 which he is not likely to be able to 
 fulfil. His progeny, which are likely 
 to be all the more dependent because 
 of the various inherited infirmities, are 
 likely to be left fatherless, or depend- 
 ent upon a father who is not capable of 
 affording them the sustenance and edu- 
 cation which it is his duty to provide. 
 These very children, whose weaknesses 
 make them the less capable of self -sup-
 
 1G0 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 port, are doomed to be left without care 
 and support before they are old enough 
 to care for themselves and to provide 
 their own support. It is wrong for 
 parents to bring into the world chil- 
 dren who are to be left real orphans, 
 or practically such, before reaching ma- 
 turity and independence. 
 
 But the perpetuation of the human 
 race by the propagation of children is 
 not the only purpose in the institution 
 of marriage. In ordaining marriage 
 God contemplated the happiness and 
 well-being of the two who enter into 
 this relation. If we keep this fact in 
 mind we will avoid some of the ground- 
 less objections which are made to the 
 marriage of men of middle life. A 
 man who knows the joy of home, of 
 companionship and of the blessings 
 which have clustered around his fire- 
 side, but who is left solitary and alone 
 by the death of his wife, deserves the 
 sympathy and the consideration which 
 he is very likely to receive at the 
 hands of his fellow-men, if, when he 
 marries again, he selects a companion
 
 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 161 
 
 of suitable age, of kindred tastes and 
 culture, and spiritual training with 
 himself. The trouble generally is that 
 the considerations which prompt to re- 
 marriage are based upon physical, 
 rather than upon social considerations. 
 Companionship is not made the primary, 
 but the secondary consideration. 
 
 It would not be just or right to de- 
 clare that all marriages in which there 
 is a disparity of age are induced pri- 
 marily and principally by physical 
 considerations. There are occasional 
 instances where persons separated in 
 age by a considerable period of years, 
 who have known each other for many 
 years, have lived under the same influ- 
 ences of intellectual and spiritual cul- 
 ture, have wrought along the same 
 lines and purposes in life, may be 
 brought together in a union of perfect 
 sympathy and happiness which is only 
 marred by the suspicion which may 
 be unjustly thrown about them. 
 
 Such marriages, however, are not 
 the ones against which the voice of 
 dissent is so generally raised. In 
 11
 
 162 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 writing upon this subject Mrs. E. B. 
 Duffey in "What Women Should 
 Know," says : " It seems as though it 
 ought to be unnecessary to mention 
 the abhorrence with which all right- 
 minded people should regard the mar- 
 riage of the young of either sex with 
 the old of the other. There is some- 
 thing utterly repugnant to good moral- 
 ity and good taste in such a union. It 
 can certainly never be brought about 
 through motives of mutual affection. 
 And the young girl who would enter 
 into the bonds of marriage through 
 mercenary motives is worse, if possi- 
 ble, than the prostitute. The latter 
 debases herself alone ; the former not 
 only debases herself, but degrades the 
 ordinance of marriage. In marriages 
 of convenience between those of simi- 
 lar ages there is still the possibility 
 that assimilation of tastes and feelings 
 may take place between them, ripening 
 into a true affection, so that, after all, 
 they shall become married in heart as 
 well as in outer bond. But in the case 
 of the marriage of the young with the
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 163 
 
 old there is no possibility of this final 
 result, for there can never be any har- 
 mony of tastes, any unison of ideas, any 
 oneness of purpose, all which go to con- 
 stitute marriage, between them." 
 
 In many of these ill-assorted mar- 
 riages of old men to young girls, the 
 motive upon one side is physical, and 
 upon the other is financial. One lusts 
 after the flesh, and the other lusts after 
 the gold. Dr. Dio Lewis in his book 
 entitled " Chastity," has a letter which 
 he addressed to a wealthy gentleman 
 of sixty-six years of age who was about 
 to marry a young girl. As such in- 
 stances are not altogether rare, it is in 
 place to quote Dr. Dio Lewis' letter at 
 this point. 
 
 " My Dear Mr. II.: I have no doubt 
 you will think this letter impertinent, 
 but I cannot refrain. You are sixty- 
 six ; your intended is eighteen. You 
 are rich; she is young and pretty. 
 You marry her for the same reason 
 that an old Turk purchases a young 
 and pretty Circassian girl ; she marries 
 you for your money. Am I not about
 
 164 3IAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 right ? Take away your fine house, 
 carriages and bank account, and do 
 you suppose the young lady would 
 marry you ? If you think so, you are 
 deceived. She takes your grand 
 wealth, subject to a mortgage, with a 
 secret hope that the mortgage may be 
 quickly canceled. If you thought so, 
 you would pronounce her mercenary 
 and heartless. And such she undoubt- 
 edly is. But you are not the person to 
 condemn her. Suppose she were fifty 
 years old instead of eighteen, but pos- 
 sessed of ten times the intelligence, 
 moral development, grace of manner 
 and genuine love for you that this 
 young girl has, but instead of a round, 
 plump body, was a little brown and 
 wrinkled, would you marry her ? No ; 
 it is not a companion, an adviser, an 
 intelligent, appreciative, sympathizing 
 friend, a real wife and mate, that you 
 seek, but it is the case of the old Turk 
 with a bag of gold visiting the market 
 where the pretty Circassian girls are 
 for sale. 
 
 " Fortunately, you have no children.
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 165 
 
 I have known several old men to marry 
 young girls and bring them home to 
 preside over families of daughters 
 many years older than the new mother. 
 In such cases a wretched estrangement 
 and quarrel is inevitable. The bride 
 is almost sure to be designing, with an 
 eye on the treasury, or, what is com- 
 mon, a soft young thing without ideas. 
 Think of a childish old man bringing 
 this schoolgirl home to preside over 
 the family of maiden ladies who know 
 all about things and comprehend their 
 father's weakness ! It is difficult to 
 imagine a more distressing situation. 
 The marriage of an old man to a young 
 woman is a violation of natural law, 
 not to say of decency ; and although 
 it occasionally involves somewhat of 
 the ' old man's darling,' the case is very 
 rare in which there is not sooner or 
 later, a deep, sore disappointment and 
 dissatisfaction, all around, to say noth- 
 ing of secret sneers and contempt of 
 outsiders." 
 
 These words are severe, but they are 
 no more severe than the circumstances
 
 166 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 demand in many instances where old 
 age and decrepitude are united to 
 youth and vigor, where a senile old 
 man is united in marriage to a young 
 girl possessed of all the vivacity and 
 physical attraction with which God 
 has endowed her in order that she 
 might be rendered attractive and 
 happy in a marriage with a man of her 
 own age. If there is anybody who is 
 more to be censured than the old man 
 who marries such a girl, it is the 
 parents who encourage and sometimes 
 compel a daughter to enter into a 
 union of this kind because of the 
 wealth which the old man possesses. 
 
 Doctor Napheys in writing of the 
 marriage of old men says: "Where 
 a father or a mother whose children are 
 yet dependent and have a right to the 
 protection and shelter beneath their 
 father's or their mother's roof desire to 
 marry again, they should always take 
 into consideration the rights of their 
 children which they should ever be un- 
 willing to ignore. In marrying for the 
 first time the parties have only them-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 167 
 
 selves and their own happiness pri- 
 marily to consult. With widows and 
 widowers this is not the case. Many- 
 women make very poor stepmothers 
 and the statement is frequently true 
 of stepfathers. A discreet physician 
 says, " As years increase, the solicita- 
 tions of love should be more and more 
 rarely indulged in ; and they should at 
 last be wholly avoided when they 
 leave a sensation of prostration, or 
 mental dulness or disturbance. If at 
 any time during middle life or later, 
 absence, or the death of a wife, should 
 enforce temporary suspension of the 
 masculine powers, the greatest caution 
 should be exercised on resuming their 
 use on return, or a second marriage." 
 
 Another physician says, " Experi- 
 ence has taught me how vastly differ- 
 ent is the situation of the class of 
 moderate men, who, having married 
 early, and regularly indulged their 
 passions at longer and longer intervals, 
 seldom come under the medical man's 
 notice, from that of widowers of some 
 years' standing, or men who have,
 
 168 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 through the demands of public or other 
 duties, been separated from their wives 
 during prolonged periods. When the 
 latter class, after leading lives of 
 chastity, suddenly resume sexual inter- 
 course, they are apt to suffer greatly 
 from generative disorders. The sudden 
 call on the nervous system after years 
 of rest, gives a shock to any constitu- 
 tion, and especially to those who are 
 already somewhat feeble." 
 
 But there is another consideration 
 which is of paramount importance. 
 The question of the effect of late mar- 
 riage in the production of a weak 
 progeny and the question of com- 
 panionship, home and happiness are not 
 the only considerations. It is impor- 
 tant also to consider the physical and 
 intellectual effect of the marriage of a 
 man in middle or later life to a woman 
 who is many years his junior, especially 
 if the marriage is induced upon the 
 part of the man by physical consider- 
 ations. If the man is intelligent and 
 his wife is apprised of the fact, and 
 sympathizes with him and a life of
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 169 
 
 great moderation is lived, sad conse- 
 quences may be avoided. But where 
 the husband is ignorant of the terrible 
 consequences which may ensue, and in- 
 dulges his sexual inclinations, he is in 
 great danger of suffering any one or a 
 number of diseases which make up 
 quite a catalogue. Many a man of 
 splendid intellectual endowment, but 
 who was thoroughly unacquainted 
 with the results of excesses to men of 
 middle life, has married and moved 
 blindly forward until he has stood 
 under a cloud of great physical em- 
 barrassment or mental darkness. 
 Physicians have frequently noted that 
 after a period of months, or of a few 
 years, softening of the brain has en- 
 sued, while the poor victim has been 
 all unconscious of the terrible conse- 
 quences which in his ignorance he was 
 pulling down upon his own head. In 
 enumerating some of the effects of such 
 excesses to men of middle life, Doctor 
 Acton says, " In some, its effects as- 
 sume the form of hypochondriasis, 
 followed by all the protean miseries
 
 170 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 of indigestion ; in others, of fatuity ; 
 in the more advanced stages paralysis 
 or paraplegia comes on, accompanied by 
 softening of the brain and its attendant 
 consequences. What in earlier life 
 was attended by temporary languor, is 
 in age not unusually followed by the 
 train of symptoms alluded to above ; 
 and, when we are called in, it is too late 
 to do aught but palliate them. 
 
 " I am every day becoming more 
 convinced that many of the affections 
 of the brain, under which elderly per- 
 sons suffer, and to which a certain pro- 
 portion annually succumbs, are caused 
 by excesses committed at a time when 
 the enfeebled powers are unable to sup- 
 port them ; and I think it is the duty 
 of the medical profession to put such 
 sufferers in possession of these facts. 
 Kind advice and sympathy would thus, 
 I am sure, save the valuable life of 
 many a man who errs from ignorance. 
 Let us listen to the warning voice of 
 one who, as I have before said, has writ- 
 ten the best work on the diseases of 
 old age. Parise is inveighing against
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 171 
 
 ill-assorted marriages of elderly per- 
 sons. ' There are great risks run ; for 
 in the extreme disparity of age, and 
 oftentimes of condition — as when a 
 man is rich and the girl is young — na- 
 ture avenges herself by spreading scan- 
 dals — doubts about paternity and do- 
 mestic troubles ; everything is at va- 
 riance, age, disposition, character, 
 tastes, and amusements. ' What shall 
 I do with him, and what will he do 
 with me ? ' said a clever young girl of 
 eighteen, whose parents wished her to 
 marry an old gentleman. With regard 
 to health and vital force, it is easy to 
 foresee what will become of them in 
 these unequal marriages, where a young 
 and fresh girl is ' flesh of the flesh,' of 
 a man used up from age, and mayhap 
 from excesses. Evidently she commits 
 a suicidal act more or less certain or 
 rapid. On the other hand experience 
 shows that the elderly man who thus 
 risks his repose and his existence, 
 speedily finds his health grievously af- 
 fected.' 
 
 " Let the elderly man, then, pause
 
 172 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 and reflect, that a human sacrifice, 
 either male or female, is generally 
 bound to the horns of the altar that 
 sanctifies such marriages. In the pres- 
 ent state of society with our manners, 
 passions, miseries, man does not always 
 die — he sometimes destroys himself. 
 And the sort of union I have touched 
 upon is one of the most ingenious de- 
 vices of men to expedite that natural 
 ' wear and tear ' by which our vital 
 forces are expended in the course of 
 three-score years and ten." 
 
 Where old men marry young women, 
 dissatisfaction, discord, dissension and 
 divorce or death are likely to follow. 
 The former of these, or indeed the en- 
 tire category, may come as the result 
 of the loss of virile power growing out 
 of sexual excesses. "Where the wife is 
 possessed of inclinations to which the 
 husband may not respond because of 
 lack of virile power, there is likely to 
 come to him a sense of anguish and 
 mental suffering. A philosophical 
 writer says : " In losing the command of 
 this function at an age when it should
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 173 
 
 be vigorous, man loses his self-respect, 
 because he feels himself fallen in im- 
 portance in relation to his species. 
 Therefore the loss of virile power, real 
 or supposed, produces an effect more 
 overpowering than that of honors, for- 
 tune, friends or relatives ; even the loss 
 of liberty is as nothing compared to 
 this internal and continual torture. 
 Those who suffer from injustice or mis- 
 fortune can accuse their enemy, society, 
 chance, etc., and invent or retain the 
 consciousness of not having deserved 
 their loss ; they have, moreover, the 
 consolation of being able to complain, 
 and a certainty of sympathy. But the 
 impotent man can make a confidant of 
 no one. His misery is of a sort which 
 cannot even inspire pity, and his great- 
 est anxiety is to allow no one to pene- 
 trate his dismal secret."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE YEARS BEYOND. 
 
 The Man at Forty-Five Determines What the Man 
 at Eighty shall be. — A Genial, Companionable 
 old Age Possible to All. — Growing old Beauti- 
 fully. — Importance of Well-Defined Purpose to 
 Keep Strong and Bright. — The Principles of 
 Chauncey M. Depew. — The Choice of Exer- 
 cise. — Gladstone Greater at Eighty Than at 
 Fifty. — Weak Bodies Command, Strong Bodies 
 Obey. — Napoleon's View of Physical Strength. 
 — Never too Old to Begin Physical Culture. — 
 Better to Begin Early. — Illustrations of Men 
 of Power in Advanced Years. — William Cullen 
 Bryant's Mode of Life. — Exercise in Doors and 
 Out of Doors. 
 
 The man who has reached the age 
 of forty-five has entered upon that 
 period which bears a very important 
 relation to the years beyond. As the 
 years of boyhood determine what the 
 mature man is to be, so these years 
 which have been called " the youth of 
 old age " determine what the man is 
 
 175
 
 176 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 to be throughout the remainder of his 
 life. These are the mouths when he 
 is to decide whether the years which 
 still remain to him shall be years of 
 weakness, decrepitude, devoid of pur- 
 pose and without energy ; whether he 
 will be cross and cranky, irritable and 
 uncompanionable, or whether his years 
 shall be characterized by strength and 
 vigor and energy and usefulness, 
 whether he will be sweet and genial, 
 whether he will be in sympathy with 
 the young and the middle-aged in their 
 aims and purposes, or whether he will 
 be a burden to himself or a blessing to 
 the world. What he is to be will be 
 dependent upon present thought, prin- 
 ciple and purpose. 
 
 A young girl, a few days since, when 
 speaking of a white-haired visitor who 
 had just taken her departure, said, " If 
 I could be such an old lady as that, so 
 beautiful, serene, sweet and lovable, I 
 wouldn't mind growing old." 
 
 Her keen witted companion who 
 was present at the time replied, 
 " Well, if you want to be that kind of
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 177 
 
 an old lady you had better begin mak- 
 ing her right now. She doesn't strike 
 me as a piece of work that was done 
 in a hurry ; it has taken a long time to 
 make her what she is. If you are go- 
 ing to paint that sort of a portrait of 
 yourself to leave to the world, you had 
 better be mixing your colors now." 
 
 There was a volume of logic and 
 good sense in this reply. Every man 
 of forty-five is " mixing the colors " 
 with which he is about to begin the 
 painting of the portrait which shall 
 present to the world what kind of a 
 man he was during the closing years 
 of his life. 
 
 It is important that every man of 
 forty-five should have well defined 
 purposes with regard to intellectual, 
 physical and moral culture. If he be- 
 comes possessed of the idea that he is 
 growing old and does not need to read 
 and keep up with the thought and 
 jDrogress of the day, if he allows his 
 physical powers to deteriorate because 
 of lack of proper attention, if he with- 
 draws himself from recreation and 
 12
 
 178 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 shuts himself out from society and the 
 companionship of friends, he is laying 
 up discomfort and misery not only for 
 himself, but for all by whom he shall 
 be surrounded. 
 
 Chauncey M. Depew, the president 
 of the New York Central and Hudson 
 River Railroad, a man blessed with 
 splendid physique, good health and 
 immense capacity for work, after hav- 
 ing spent a quarter of a century with 
 that company, said " I early made up 
 my mind from observing the men who 
 have broken down around me and 
 gone to pieces, that the only safe way 
 is variety of occupation ; that unless a 
 man could relieve the strain by excur- 
 sions into other fields, and especially 
 such things as would keep up his 
 cheerfulness and hopefulness, he was 
 gone. I care nothing for cards, take 
 no interest in games of chance, and at 
 first used to spend my evenings late 
 into the night in continuing the busi- 
 ness of the day. Of course, that pro- 
 duced sleeplessness, and in a short time 
 led to an overstrain in one direction of
 
 M AN OF FORTY-FIVE. 179 
 
 the same brain fibres, which destroyed 
 their elasticity, and resulted in bad 
 judgment and poor work. It is for 
 this reason that the extremely busy 
 man can do better the next day, if, 
 after his business hours, he can switch 
 his mental machinery off into some 
 channel which gives rest and recrea- 
 tion." 
 
 Just what forms of recreation a man 
 at forty-five should adopt will depend 
 very largely upon his earlier occupa- 
 tion, daily vocation, financial resources, 
 his family, his social and religious life. 
 Even the man who has not received an 
 inheritance of the largest physical en- 
 dowment, by care, culture and persist- 
 ent exercise, and with an inspiring 
 purpose in life can go steadily for- 
 ward until eighty years of age and be- 
 yond with his eye undimmed and his 
 physical force largely unabated. 
 
 It is said of Wm. E. Gladstone, the 
 great English statesman, that at eighty 
 years of age he was superior to what 
 he was at fifty. All this came of an 
 inspiring purpose in life, a resolute will
 
 180 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 and persistent determination which 
 kept him devoted to his daily recrea- 
 tions and regular means of physical 
 culture, to his trust in God and his 
 ability to sleep well. Over his mantel- 
 piece in his bedroom there was em- 
 blazoned the text which doubtless en- 
 tered into his inner life and banished 
 nervous exhaustion, made him calm 
 and peaceful and enabled him to spend 
 in restful sleep the hours which so 
 many devote to anxiety and worry. 
 The text runs ; " Thou wilt keep him 
 in perfect peace whose mind is stayed 
 on Thee." 
 
 At every period of life, the value 
 of good health is beyond computation ; 
 but it seems even more valuable to 
 men of middle life and beyond, be- 
 cause in so many instances it has been 
 sadly undervalued, until finally lost. 
 The means of attaining it are easily 
 within the reach of all who are in 
 normal condition, but its value is 
 scarcely realized until it has been lost, 
 and then persons spend thousands of 
 dollars and years of effort seeking to
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 181 
 
 regain that which, while in their pos- 
 session, they estimated so lightly. 
 
 It has been well said, " The weaker 
 the body, the more it commands ; the 
 stronger it is, the more it obeys." One 
 of the most eminent physicians af- 
 firms it as his conviction that four- 
 fifths of all the ills from which human 
 beings suffer are caused by an insuffi- 
 cient amount of exercise. Blackie in 
 his book on " Self Culture " says, " The 
 measure of a man's vitality is the 
 measure of his working power. To 
 possess every faculty and function of 
 the body in harmonious working order 
 is to be healthy ; to be healthy with a 
 high degree of vital force is to be 
 strong. A man may be healthy with- 
 out being strong ; but all health tends 
 more or less towards strength ; and all 
 disease is weakness." 
 
 Napoleon said, " The first requisite 
 of good generalship is good health. To 
 the strong hand, head, limbs and frame, 
 fall the heavy burdens ; and there fall the 
 great prizes too. Preparation for every 
 contingency made Cassar. By activity
 
 182 31 AN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 and giant determination, rather than 
 military skill, he won." Pliny said, 
 " It is wonderful how much the mind 
 is enlivened by the motions and exer- 
 cise of the body." 
 
 If we could say anything to induce 
 all men of forty-five to resolve to pos- 
 sess themselves of the advantages 
 which are open to every person by a 
 series of daily, systematic exercise, 
 we would confer upon our fellow-men 
 a benediction of good health, good 
 cheer and blessings impossible to esti- 
 mate. By exercise we do not mean 
 that a man is to lounge lazily in the 
 hammock, or loll in the shade ; but Ave 
 do mean that a suitable portion of each 
 day should be devoted to cheerful, 
 hearty, energetic recreation and phys- 
 ical exercise. 
 
 But some men who have never 
 swung Indian clubs, handled dumb 
 bells, pulled at exercisers, tugged at 
 the oar, walked with vigor by the mile, 
 and by the hour, will say, that at 
 forty-five or sixty or seventy they are 
 two old to begin. This is a great mis-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 183 
 
 take. ISTo one is ever too old to begin, 
 although the earlier he begins the bet- 
 ter. If the body is weak and the 
 muscles are flabby, the beginning- 
 should be made with consideration and 
 moderation. But where the exercise 
 is well chosen, begun moderately, and 
 persistently pursued, the results will be 
 astonishing. A few days of such exer- 
 cise will give assurance of what a few 
 weeks will secure, and the end of a 
 month or two will bring a reward 
 which could scarcely have been antici- 
 pated. "When the blood is sent cours- 
 ing in a strong and healthy flow 
 through the entire body the muscles 
 will acquire strength, pallor will disap- 
 pear from the cheek, languor from the 
 eye, and force and manly courage will 
 declare themselves in every movement 
 of the body, food will taste as in the 
 days of yore, and the sleep will be 
 sweet and refreshing. 
 
 Many persons are inclined to believe 
 that physical culture is valuable only 
 to the young. Experience shows the 
 absurdity of such a theory. The
 
 184 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 young may secure a larger reward in 
 the form of a more permanent result ; 
 but a certain amount of exercise is es- 
 sential to good health at all periods of 
 life. What can be done for a man, 
 even at seventy-two years of age is 
 seen in the instance of Thomas House- 
 worth of California. " For forty years 
 he followed the occupation of an 
 optician. At sixty-five his health 
 failed, and after three attacks of the 
 grippe, his physician, who had at- 
 tended him for over thirty-six years, 
 stated that there was but little hope 
 of his permanent recovery. About 
 this time he became interested in phys- 
 ical culture, and was so impressed that 
 he determined to give it a trial. A 
 teacher was in his locality and he 
 joined his class. The marvellous im- 
 provement of his general condition was 
 noted with pleasure. In five weeks he 
 gained five inches in chest expansion. 
 There was a gold medal offered to the 
 member of this class who would per- 
 form the movements most gracefully 
 and accurately, and, notwithstanding
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 185 
 
 his extreme age, and though there were 
 two hundred and ninety competitors, 
 he succeeded in winning this medal. 
 He is an enthusiastic cyclist and is con- 
 sidered the champion high kicker in his 
 locality." 
 
 What exercise will do for a man, not 
 only of forty-five or fifty, but of eighty 
 years and beyond is beautifully illus- 
 trated in the case of Win. Cullen Bryant, 
 the poet, formerly the editor of the New 
 York Evening Post, and an indefati- 
 gable literary worker. Shortly after 
 his death, in the semi-weekly issue of 
 the Evening Post, of June the 14th, 
 IS 78, there appeared the following 
 letter, written by Mr. Bryant in March, 
 1871, and addressed to Joseph H. Rich- 
 ards, Esq., in which Mr. Bryant de- 
 scribed the habits of his life, and the 
 wonderful preservation of his physical 
 and mental vigor. " I promised some- 
 time since to give you some account of 
 my habits of life, so far at least as re- 
 gards diet, exercise, and occupation. 
 I am not sure that it will be of any 
 use to you, although the system which
 
 186 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 I have for many years observed seems 
 to answer my purpose very well. I 
 have reached a pretty advanced period 
 of life without the usual infirmities of 
 old age, and with my strength, ac- 
 tivity, and bodily faculties generally, 
 in pretty good preservation. How far 
 this may be the effect of my way of 
 life, adopted long ago and steadily ad- 
 hered to, is perhaps uncertain. 
 
 " I rise early ; at this time of the 
 year about half-past five ; in summer 
 half an hour or even an hour earlier. 
 Immediately, with very little incum- 
 brance of clothing, I begin a series of 
 exercises, for the most part designed 
 to expand the chest, and at the same 
 time call into action all the muscles 
 and articulations of the body. These 
 are performed with dumb bells, the 
 very lightest, covered with flannel, 
 with a pole, a horizontal bar, and a 
 light chair swung around my head. 
 After a full hour, and sometimes more, 
 passed in this manner, I bathe from 
 head to foot. When at my place in 
 the country, I sometimes shorten my
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 187 
 
 exercises in the chamber, and, going 
 out, occupy myself for half an hour or 
 more in some work which requires 
 brisk exercise. After my bath, if 
 breakfast be not ready, I sit down to 
 my studies till I am called. 
 
 "After breakfast I occupy myself 
 for a while with mv studies, and then, 
 when in town, I walk down to the 
 office of the Evening Post, nearly 
 three miles distant, and, after about 
 three hours, return, always walking, 
 whatever be the weather or the state 
 of the streets. In the country, I am 
 engaged in my library tasks till a feel- 
 ing of weariness drives me out into the 
 open air, and I go upon my farm or 
 into the garden and prune the fruit- 
 trees, or perform some other work 
 about them which they need, and then 
 go back to my books. I do not often 
 drive out, preferring to walk." 
 
 It would be easy to multiply in- 
 stances of men of middle life and be- 
 yond who have retained their full 
 physical and mental powers by phys- 
 ical effort and energy in the open air,
 
 188 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 and by exercise and physical culture 
 within doors. To those who desire 
 added information along these lines, 
 and who wish to read an excellent 
 book on physical culture we would 
 recommend the volume entitled " How 
 to Get Strong and How to Stay So," 
 by Wm, Blackie, published by Harper 
 and Brothers, New York. 
 
 Wonderful results can be secured by 
 devoting only ten or even fifteen min- 
 utes daily to systematic exercise. 
 Larger results can be secured by de- 
 voting more time ; but it matters not 
 how busy one's life may be, he can 
 easily devote ten or fifteen minutes to 
 physical culture immediately upon ris- 
 ing in the morning. When a good 
 exerciser can be purchased for three or 
 four dollars, or a pair of good dumb 
 bells weighing three or four pounds 
 a piece, at a cost not exceeding fifty 
 cents, the price of good health is surely 
 within the reach of all. 
 
 Care should always be taken to 
 have plenty of fresh air in the sleeping 
 apartments ; and increased value will
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 189 
 
 be added to the exercise if it is fol- 
 lowed by a sponge or hand bath and a 
 good vigorous rubbing of the body, 
 and this can be done with no larger 
 resource than a washbowl in one's 
 sleeping room. What the reward of 
 these things is we have the blessedness 
 of knowing by personal experience 
 since we were eighteen years of age. 
 
 To those of our readers who desire 
 to know not only what they should do, 
 but how they should do it, we would 
 recommend them to purchase some 
 good magazine on physical culture. 
 
 There are various systems of exer- 
 cise, both with and without apparatus, 
 all of which are meritorious, and con- 
 cerning which any person can secure 
 full information by addressing the 
 physical director of any of the Young 
 Men's Christian Associations in the 
 larger cities ; or by noting some of the 
 apparatus used in physical culture as 
 advertised in the magazines, or by in- 
 quiry of the editor of any health jour- 
 nal or of the editor of some magazine 
 on physical culture.
 
 PART II. 
 
 What a Man of Forty-five Ought to 
 Know Concerning His Wife.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 REPELLENT PEOPLE AND REPELLENT 
 PERIODS. 
 
 The Husband Should be Intelligent Concerning His 
 "Wife for His Own Good. — For Her Comfort and 
 Well-being Also. — Reproduction the Great Pri- 
 mal Purpose in the Institution of Marriage. — 
 The Strength and Nature of the Amative Incli- 
 nation. — Repellent People, or People Devoid of 
 Sexual Inclination. — Absence of Amativeness 
 Recognized by Children. — Advantages and Dis- 
 advantages of Such Persons. — The Repellent 
 Periods of Attractive People. — Why Repellent 
 at Menstrual Period.— Why Repellent After Con- 
 ception and During Period of Gestation. — Uni- 
 versal Homage Due and Paid to Expectant 
 Motherhood. — Reproach of Wives Who Refuse 
 Motherhood.— Nature's Method for Securing 
 Undisturbed Maternity. — The Third and Great 
 Repellent Period. 
 
 We have now come to the second 
 division of our subject, namely, What 
 a man of forty-five ought to know con- 
 cerning his wife. In writing to hus- 
 bands upon this subject, our treatment 
 
 13 193
 
 194 31 AN OF FORTY- FIVE. 
 
 will, of course, be very different from 
 what it would be if we were writing 
 to women themselves. What we pro- 
 pose is, to endeavor to make the hus- 
 band intelligent upon these subjects, so 
 that he may understand and interpret 
 to himself conditions which otherwise 
 might afford him great perplexity and 
 oftentimes great embarrassment and 
 difficulty. The changes through which 
 the wife passes at the period of middle 
 life should be understood by the hus- 
 band for his own good and comfort. 
 
 But it is not only for his own good that 
 he should be intelligent concerning the 
 changes and manifestations which at- 
 tend the climacteric period in the phys- 
 ical life of women, but he should be 
 intelligent upon these subjects for the 
 good and comfort of his wife also. 
 Without intelligence how could he pro- 
 tect her in this period of her life when 
 she needs to be guarded and shielded 
 in ways which were not previously 
 necessary ? How shall he sympathize 
 with her in the great struggles and 
 trials, through which so many women
 
 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 195 
 
 are called upon to pass, at this period 
 of her life, unless he is intelligent and 
 understands something of the nature 
 and character of these changes ? 
 
 To understand either himself or his 
 wife in their modified emotions at that 
 period when the sexual hush comes to 
 the husband and the wife, it is neces- 
 sary that the whole subject should be 
 viewed, not from the low standard of 
 a debased sexual passion, but from the 
 standpoint of the exalted purpose which 
 God had in mind in endowing men and 
 women with reproductive power and 
 inclination. No one can study this 
 subject without being convinced that 
 the great primal purpose for which 
 marriage was instituted is the repro- 
 duction of the species and the perpetu- 
 ation of the race. 
 
 In order that neither love for her 
 parents nor the love of her childhood 
 home, nor the pains and perils of mater- 
 nity upon the part of the woman ; nor 
 the cost of the support of two persons in- 
 stead of one, the maintenance of a home 
 and the many difficulties which con-
 
 •. 
 
 
 
 196 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 front men in assuming the additional 
 burdens which marriage imposes should 
 stand in the way of this marriage 
 union, God has endowed both men and 
 women with a sexual inclination strong 
 enough to overcome such deterrents. 
 The impulses which move them to af- 
 fectionate considerations, and the de- 
 sire to be constantly in each other's 
 company, may not be recognized by 
 them as a sexual inclination, but these 
 sentiments and inclinations are never- 
 theless absent in those who are wholly 
 devoid of sexual characteristics. 
 
 But God has not only designed that 
 men and women should be attracted to 
 each other in a marriage union for the 
 reproduction of the species, but He has 
 also designed that at those intervals 
 when reproduction is likely to be inter- 
 fered with by untimely sexual congress 
 the sexual inclinations should be greatly 
 diminished, and that the attractive 
 forces should then be largely converted 
 into what may be called a repellent 
 force. In arriving therefore at a clear 
 understanding of the nature and pur-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 197 
 
 pose of the changes which take place 
 in the physical life of women at the 
 climacteric period, it will be necessary 
 to understand something of the subject 
 which we have indicated by the title 
 at the head of this chapter. 
 
 In writing of repellent people and 
 repellent periods, it should be under- 
 stood that we use the word "repel- 
 lent," not in that strong sense which 
 would characterize the word if we 
 were writing of repulsive sexual per- 
 verts, but of " repellent," in the sense 
 that the strong attractive force then be- 
 comes so much abated, that the wife 
 who at other times would not only de- 
 sire but seek her husband's caresses 
 and embraces, will prefer at these 
 periods to be excused from most if not 
 all sexual approaches. She may be 
 simply sexually repellent, while at the 
 same time she may not in any measure 
 be devoid of the intellectual, social and 
 other attractions, which may render 
 her interesting and companionable. 
 
 Every person is likely to have ob- 
 served occasional families where intel-
 
 198 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 ligence, refinement, culture and all 
 the endowments and graces possessed 
 by other people are present, and yet 
 where all the sons grow to be bachelors 
 and the daughters all grow to be old 
 maids. People note the fact, and 
 oftentimes express surprise, that only 
 occasional members of such families 
 yield themselves to the inclination to 
 marry. Under certain conditions, 
 young women of this class, if the op- 
 portunity is afforded, sometimes con- 
 sent to marry for the purpose of ob- 
 taining a home, to avoid what they 
 regard as a reproach by not being 
 married, or for other considerations ; 
 but they are never moved to it by the 
 sentiments and inclinations which so 
 generally induce others to assume the 
 duties and obligations of marriage. 
 
 Children of this class may live with- 
 out dangers in the midst of perils 
 which are hazardous and oftentimes 
 destructive to other kinds of children. 
 Solitary vice never appeals to such 
 children, and we have had persons of 
 this class, who had arrived at the age
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 199 
 
 of full maturity, say that when a child 
 at school they had never been ap- 
 proached by other children with evil 
 thoughts or vile suggestions. The rea- 
 son why this is true is because, in many 
 instances, such persons are devoid of 
 those strong sexual characteristics 
 which distinguish other children. 
 Without reasoning at all, children 
 intuitively, but unthinkingly and un- 
 knowingly judge their companions in 
 these as in many other matters. Such 
 persons are not approached simply be- 
 cause they are so measurably devoid 
 of sexual inclination as to fail to at- 
 tract to themselves either the pure or 
 the impure who are possessed of strong 
 amative inclinations. We have known 
 men of this class to arrive at the age of 
 twenty-five or thirty years before the 
 ordinary thoughts which are common 
 to boys of eight and ten concerning sex 
 and sexual relations have ever occurred 
 to their minds. 
 
 This lack of the amative inclination 
 might be regarded by some as desirable 
 in children ; but when we remember
 
 200 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 that amativeness is strong in all the 
 great characters which rise to eminence 
 and distinction in almost all the de- 
 partments of human life and useful- 
 ness, the absence of this sexual attract- 
 iveness cannot be regarded as a virtue, 
 but as an absence of something which 
 is rather to be deplored. Such persons, 
 as we have already said, do not repel, 
 but fail to attract others to themselves. 
 They may have friends, but the friend- 
 ships do not ripen into such affection 
 and love as prompts to marriage. 
 
 As there are those who mav be at- 
 tractive in some ways while they are 
 at all times unattractive sexually, so 
 there are others who may be even not- 
 ably deficient in intellectual, spiritual 
 or moral attractiveness, but who are 
 entitled to rank as sexually attractive. 
 All members of this class are not pos- 
 sessed of beauty or even of physical 
 attractions, but amativeness is a quality 
 which they possess in a large degree, 
 and other people are apt to like 
 them, even though they cannot tell 
 why.
 
 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 201 
 
 But people who are sexually attract- 
 ive at times are not so all the time. 
 Even those women who are physically 
 most attractive have periods when they 
 are less attractive, or what may be de- 
 nominated repellent periods. 
 
 One of these periods occurs at the 
 time of her regular monthly " sick- 
 ness," which in the Old Testament is 
 spoken of as " the days of her separa- 
 tion," and the reason is not difficult to 
 find. The primal purpose of coition is 
 reproduction. During this period she 
 repels the male, not only because of 
 impulses of delicacy and cleanliness, 
 but because her deeper nature is con- 
 scious of such changes as are necessary 
 in order to fit her for the office of 
 conception for which she is to be 
 fully prepared in the course of a few 
 days. Intuitively, without any con- 
 sideration upon her part, she not only 
 ceases to attract, but if approached, is 
 likely to repel, even the husband whom 
 she loves. In the fifteenth chapter of 
 the book of Leviticus, beginning with 
 the sixteenth verse, the law of cleanli-
 
 202 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 ness at this time is very clearly laid 
 down. This law is not only clearly 
 written in the Mosaic code, but in the 
 very nature of woman herself. 
 
 During the period of the monthly 
 sickness most women are nervous and 
 given to more or less irritability. 
 This nervous condition is, probably, less 
 due to the menstrual flow than it is to 
 the ovulation. It is found in those in- 
 stances in which women do not men- 
 struate and ovulate at the same time, 
 that the period of physical depression 
 is attendant, not upon the period when 
 they menstruate, but upon the period 
 when they ovulate — at the period when 
 the egg ripens and passes from the 
 ovary and is transferred into the fallo- 
 pian tube. No thoughtful or consid- 
 erate husband can fail, even though 
 his wife should be irritable at these 
 periods, to afford her that sympathy 
 and affectionate treatment which she 
 so justly deserves. 
 
 Another period at which women 
 cease to be attractive and become re- 
 pellent, not only to sexual approaches,
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 203 
 
 but even to manifestations of affec- 
 tion, is during the period which inter- 
 venes between the time of conception 
 and the full restoration of her physical 
 nature after the birth of the child. 
 "When the great primal purpose for 
 which coition was instituted has been 
 accomplished, the inward longing turns 
 from the desire for sexual embraces 
 to the duty of giving a grateful recep- 
 tion to the life which has begun to be 
 formed within, and the entire nature 
 undergoes such physical changes as is 
 suited to nourish and develop the 
 body of the growing child, preparatory 
 to its entrance into the outer world. 
 The demands upon the physical re- 
 sources of the mother are so great that 
 the bloom and color are likely measur- 
 ably to depart from her cheek, and 
 not only is she likely to be devoid of 
 any sexual desire for the approaches 
 of her husband, but to lose even the 
 attractiveness of her face during this 
 period. 
 
 Where women properly regard the 
 ordinance of marriage, and recognize
 
 204 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 the wisdom of the divine purpose in 
 the establishment of the home, their 
 children are each in turn accorded not 
 only a kindty, but even a hearty wel- 
 come as a member of the family circle. 
 When such women lose something of 
 their sexual attractiveness, they still 
 are most interesting, and while in the 
 execution of the high and holy func- 
 tion which God has assigned them, 
 they are worthy of, and we believe 
 generally receive the most profound 
 homage of all pure minded and right 
 thinking men. It is during these months 
 that they deserve the most thought- 
 ful and considerate treatment at the 
 hands of their husbands, and at such 
 time no husband can overstep his 
 duty by bestowing upon his wife his 
 most considerate attention, loving ex- 
 pressions of affection and acceptable 
 gifts. 
 
 There are women, however, bv whom 
 maternity is regarded as a great afflic- 
 tion. They have entered marriage 
 with a desire to ignore its primitive 
 purpose, to escape its responsibilities,
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 205 
 
 and to pass through life without bear- 
 ing children. "When such women find 
 themselves expectant mothers, they are 
 oftentimes transformed into veritable 
 tartars. They become not only sex- 
 ually unattractive, but household ter- 
 rors. We have known some homes to 
 be converted into perfect pandemo- 
 niums, and the husband to spend a 
 year or more in the greatest possible 
 unhappiness. It is scarcely necessary 
 to say that the woman who is capable 
 of child bearing, but who enters into 
 marriage and then refuses to become 
 a mother, ought never to have mar- 
 ried. The woman who prostitutes her- 
 self to different men for varying con- 
 siderations, is not much worse than 
 the woman who sells herself to one 
 man with the distinct understanding 
 that she is to be to him nothing but a 
 personal or private prostitute so long 
 as she lives, and all this in considera- 
 tion of food, clothing, a home and the 
 semblances of wifehood. 
 
 While there are women who receive 
 the embraces of their husband during
 
 206 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 the period of gestation without reluc- 
 tance and even with more than usual 
 willingness, this condition will be 
 found to exist, not because they would 
 naturally seek it at that time, but be- 
 cause the fear of conception is no 
 longer present, and consequently they 
 wantonly abandon themselves to the 
 sexual relation with the thought, that 
 " the worst has already taken place," 
 and that therefore they have nothing 
 further to fear. 
 
 With the most of women, however, 
 nature demands an undisturbed mater- 
 nity, and the conduct and bearing of 
 the wife is in harmony with the best 
 interests of the unfolding life and the 
 groAving body within her. 
 
 Keeping reproduction in mind as 
 the great primal purpose of marriage, 
 it will not be so difficult to under- 
 stand the greatest of the three re- 
 pellent periods in the life of women, 
 namely, that which occurs when she 
 attains, because of advancing years, to 
 her exemption from further child bear- 
 ing.
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 207 
 
 It is at this period of life that her 
 reproductive nature passes into a period 
 of quiescence and repose. In the ac- 
 complishment of the changes which 
 attend upon and follow this transition 
 period most women pass through a 
 period of stress and trial, a time of 
 nervous and mental disturbance, which 
 render her somewhat of a burden to her- 
 self and unattractive and even uncom- 
 panionable to those by whom she is 
 surrounded. During the years which 
 have preceded, her sexual attractive- 
 ness was intended to contribute to the 
 furthering of the great purpose of 
 marriage. But now, that reproduc- 
 tion is no longer to take place, it is 
 essential for her physical well-being 
 that a period of sexual repose should 
 be secured. To this end God now 
 makes her less attractive, and her 
 manner and bearing consequently be- 
 come such as to render her repellent 
 to the sexual approaches of her mate. 
 This is done not only for her own good, 
 but if her husband is of companionable 
 age, it is intended to contribute to his
 
 208 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 physical and intellectual benefit as 
 well. 
 
 What the nature, extent and mani- 
 festations of these changes are will 
 appear in the subsequent chapter.
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 CHANGE OF LIFE IN WOMAN. 
 
 Two Great Changes in the Physical Life of Woman. 
 — The Menopause or "Change of Life." — Re- 
 garded with Apprehension.— The Menopause 
 Often Brings Blessings.— Conserves Physical 
 Powers for Good of Individual. — Husband and 
 Wife Complemented Part of Complete Reproduc- 
 tive Unit. — Both Parts Change at Correspond- 
 ing Period. — Disappearance of Menstruation 
 Only an Outward Manifestation.— Changes in 
 Function of the Ovaries.— The Menstrual 
 Phenomenon Explained and Illustrated.— The 
 Reason for Its Cessation Made Plain.— The Age 
 at which the "Change of Life," may be Ex- 
 pected. 
 
 The two most important changes in 
 the life of woman occur, the first, when 
 her periodic menstrual flow begins, 
 and the second, when she reaches the 
 menopause, or the period when the 
 menstrual manifestation ceases. This 
 latter period is generally known among 
 women as the period of " a change of 
 14 209
 
 210 31 AN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 life." It is also called the menopause, 
 which signifies the pausing or ceasing 
 of the menstrual or monthly flow. It 
 is also called the " climacteric " period, 
 indicating that period of life when, 
 like the traveller who has attained the 
 summit of a mountain passes beyond 
 the scenes upon which his eye and 
 thought have rested in the ascent, and 
 now looks out upon the scenes which 
 stretch away in new valleys and plains 
 which spread out before him as he be- 
 gins to descend upon the opposite side. 
 The word climacteric in its stricter use 
 refers to any period of life when a 
 climax or crisis has been reached, and 
 generally refers to those periods of 
 seven years into which human life 
 seems to be naturally divided — infancy, 
 childhood, manhood, maturity, and at 
 forty-nine the climacteric period of 
 man, and ten times seven, " the allotted 
 period of human life." However, the 
 word climacteric is generally under- 
 stood to refer to that period in the 
 lives of men and women, when they 
 reach middle life, and when the power
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 211 
 
 of reproductive energy begins to di- 
 minish, and the begetting and bearing 
 of children ceases. 
 
 Some women are wont to regard the 
 period which follows the menopause 
 with reluctance and regret. They look 
 upon it not only as a time when blush, 
 and bloom, and personal attraction 
 have departed; they think of spec- 
 tacles, and caps, and knitting ; but if a 
 woman has spent her earlier years 
 judiciously and wisely, preserving her 
 health and strength, acquiring knowl- 
 edge and extending her influence, she 
 may rightly expect a long period of 
 unimpaired usefulness and of undimin- 
 ished happiness. She has entered upon 
 a period when love will glow with a 
 purer and even brighter flame, when 
 with unimpaired energies and high and 
 holy purposes, when liberated from 
 some of the duties and obligations 
 which previously rested upon her, she 
 may go forward in the enjoyment of 
 happiness and in the attainment of 
 larger usefulness and blessings. 
 
 But it is with reference to the period
 
 212 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 of stress and weakness, and oftentimes 
 of trial, which become the cause of 
 anxious solicitude, that we now write. 
 The readjustment which takes place 
 in the physical life of men and of 
 women at this period is a conservative 
 process of nature which is intended to 
 conserve the physical and intellectual 
 powers for the good of the individual. 
 That these changes should take place 
 at about a corresponding period in the 
 life of the husband and wife, can be 
 readily understood. Husband and wife 
 together constitute as we have pre- 
 viously said, one complex but com- 
 plete reproductive unit. They are like 
 two parts of one and the same machine, 
 either incomplete without the other. 
 In some animals the father and the 
 mother nature are united in the same 
 body. It is easy to understand how, 
 in such instances, both natures would 
 not only respond and cooperate during 
 the period of reproductive activity, but 
 that both would modify and change at 
 the same period when reproductive ac- 
 tivity should cease.
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 213 
 
 The same is true where the father 
 and the mother natures are separated, 
 and exist, the one in the body of the 
 father and the other in the body of the 
 mother. While there is an apparent 
 duality, there is yet a real unity, and 
 that these changes may occur in the 
 bodies of both at about the same time, 
 it is regarded wise, when choosing a 
 mate, that the husband, in most in- 
 stances at least, should be some three to 
 five years older than his wife. 
 
 In the minds of most women, the 
 period of change of life is associated 
 with the thought that it consists simply 
 of a cessation of the monthly flow. 
 This, however, is only its principal out- 
 ward manifestation. Perhaps the 
 greater change and that which results 
 in greater physical discomfort, comes 
 as the result of the changes which take 
 place in the ovaries, preparatory to the 
 cessation of ovulation, or the ripening 
 of the egg or germ of human life. It 
 is the period when the germ-making 
 power terminates. The period of ovu- 
 lation and of menstruation do not coin-
 
 214 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 cide in all instances ; as a rule women 
 ovulate and menstruate at the same 
 time, but there are many instances 
 where the menstruation takes place at 
 one period and the ovulation at an- 
 other. Indeed, the nervous strain, and 
 consequent irritability, in such in- 
 stances is usually found to attend the 
 period of ovulation, rather than that 
 of menstruation. In such instances 
 the period of menstruation is attended 
 with no sense of physical depletion 
 or depression, but rather the reverse. 
 Ovulation may and oftentimes does 
 take place without menstruation. Con- 
 ception may and oftentimes does 
 occur when menstruation has not reg- 
 ularly taken place. Such instances 
 are frequent during the period of 
 nursing ; and young women have 
 conceived and borne children before 
 ever they have menstruated, and 
 elderly women have been known to 
 conceive and bear children after the 
 period of menstruation has entirely 
 ceased. And so, upon the other hand, 
 menstruation may occur regularly with
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 215 
 
 women who have never conceived, and 
 there are instances where women have 
 continued to menstruate even after the 
 ovaries have been removed. These in- 
 stances, however, are exceptional, for 
 as a rule, the periods of ovulation and 
 menstruation coincide. 
 
 "Why menstruation should cease at 
 middle life, when ovulation terminates, 
 will appear, when we understand what 
 is now generally accepted by the lead- 
 ing physicians as the cause of the 
 monthly flow in woman. At regular 
 intervals throughout the child bearing 
 period the lining of the uterus, or 
 womb, undergoes such changes as are 
 designed to prepare the womb for a 
 favorable reception and congenial rest- 
 ing-place for the ovum after it has been 
 fertilized. After fertilization the ovum 
 is generally received into a fold or 
 cavity of the mucous coating in the 
 upper portion of the womb, which is 
 designed to form its nest, or home, or 
 cradle during its period of growth and 
 development, prior to its entrance upon 
 an independent life in the outer world.
 
 216 3IAN OF FOETY-FIVE. 
 
 This change and preparation of the 
 mucous linings of the womb immedi- 
 ately follows the period of the men- 
 strual flow. If conception does not 
 take place during the couple of weeks 
 which follow, nature then undertakes 
 the preparation of the womb for the 
 reception of the next ovum which is 
 preparing to descend from the ovary, 
 through the fallopian tube. In the 
 accomplishment of this work there is a 
 disintegration or change in the mucous 
 membrane of the womb, and this is dis- 
 charged with an attendant flow of 
 blood which constituted the phenome- 
 non of menstruation. 
 
 Dr. DeWitt G. Wilcox, in an article 
 in the Philadelphia Medical Journal, 
 describes this change in the following 
 graphic language : 
 
 " It is a well-known physiological 
 fact that the uterus undergoes a certain 
 preparation each month for the recep- 
 tion of the ovum. A few days prior 
 to the arrival of the expected guest 
 that organ "cleans house," and adds 
 new interior furnishings; old shreds of
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 217 
 
 membrane are cast off and a new heavy 
 lining of a velvety character, richly 
 supplied with blood-connections, is 
 formed in the upper part of the uter- 
 ine cavity ; this is the decidua. If the 
 ovum arrives as " guest-in-ordinary " 
 (that is unimpregnated) then the new 
 furnishings are torn down and cast off, 
 and form part of the menstrual flow. 
 If, however, the ovum comes as a royal 
 guest (impregnated and developed up 
 to six or eight days) then is the recep- 
 tion made befitting the guest. The 
 doors and windows of the decidua are 
 closed to prevent the untimely escape 
 of the guest or intrusions from with- 
 out. Richer blood-supply is added and 
 the velvety hangings are materially in- 
 creased in thickness. One corner of 
 the reception hall is set aside for the 
 guest, where it is permanently sta- 
 tioned and nourishment sumptuously 
 provided. This guest, the ovum, sends 
 out rootlets or villous growths, which 
 ramify into the decidua, and the circu- 
 lation between uterus and ovum is 
 established."
 
 218 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 From the above facts the reason for 
 the cessation of the menstrual flow 
 readily becomes manifest. The period 
 of reproductive life has been com- 
 pleted, no more ova are to be re- 
 ceived into the womb, and, conse- 
 quently, no future preparations are to 
 be made for their reception, retention 
 and development, as nature designs in 
 all cases where impregnation takes 
 place. Great physical changes conse- 
 quently take place in the body of the 
 woman who is not henceforth to be- 
 come a mother. 
 
 Because of the importance of the 
 changes which attend this period, many 
 are anxious to inquire definitely at 
 what period they occur. The age at 
 which women experience these changes 
 differs materially in some instances ; 
 but as a general rule, it may be said to 
 occur in this country at from forty -five 
 to fifty years of age. Instances are 
 not unusual where women pass the age 
 of fifty before they notice the symp- 
 toms which attend this change. There 
 are rare instances in which women
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 219 
 
 have attained the age of sixty, before 
 the change has occurred. 
 
 Upon the other hand, there are in- 
 stances, and they are not scarce, where 
 the change has taken place as early as 
 thirty-five years of age. Dr. T. J. 
 Patchen narrates the incident of a girl 
 who ceased to menstruate at twenty- 
 two years of age. This would be as 
 exceptional as the instance where a 
 woman retains her reproductive power 
 until she reaches the age of seventy. 
 There are, however, somewhat frequent 
 instances where women change as 
 early as twenty-eight and thirty years 
 of age. 
 
 Some physicians multiply by two 
 the age of a woman at the time when 
 she began to menstruate. This result 
 indicates the length of the period of 
 reproductive activity. The age at 
 which menstruation began, and the 
 years of reproductive activity, added 
 together, gives the age at which the 
 change of life is likely to occur. Or, 
 in other words, the menstrual flow is 
 likely to continue for a period twice as
 
 230 3IAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 long as the number of years which 
 marked the age of the person at the 
 time the flow began. These two added 
 together — or three times the age of the 
 person at the time the flow began — in- 
 dicates the age at which the change of 
 life is likely to appear. 
 
 This rule of course is not universally 
 accurate, because much depends upon 
 changed physical conditions, and even 
 changes in material circumstances 
 which may greatly affect the physical 
 life of any person.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 HOW TO MEET THE MENOPAUSE. 
 
 Importance of Preparing for the Menopause. — Not 
 a Period of Suffering to All. — Effects Upon Dif- 
 ferent Temperaments. — Every Woman a Law 
 unto Herself. — Importance of Occupation. — 
 Freedom from Exacting Demands. — Surround- 
 ings. — Diet. — Effects of Stimulants. — Impor- 
 tance of Physical Culture. — Constipation. — Fresh 
 Air. — Deep Breathing. — Relief Secured by Self- 
 Control. — Importance of Sexual Repose. — Sex- 
 ual Inclination Diminishes and Eventually Dis- 
 appears. — Abnormal Cases. — Duration of Stress 
 at Change of Life. 
 
 While all women do not suffer 
 severely at the climacteric period of 
 life, yet it is important that all should 
 look forward to it and make such prep- 
 aration as is best calculated to enable 
 them to pass this period with the great- 
 est amount of comfort. Where local 
 inflammations, ulcerations or weakness 
 exist, as far as possible, the disorder 
 should be carefully corrected, so that 
 
 221
 
 222 31 AN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 it may not influence unfavorably the 
 transitions and changes which attend 
 the climacteric period. It is undoubt- 
 edly true that previous diseases of the 
 womb, miscarriages, lacerations at 
 childbirth, and various forms of female 
 weakness may contribute to increased 
 discomfort at this period — yet it is by 
 no means correct to suppose that only 
 those who have suffered in these ways 
 will now experience the largest discom- 
 fort, or be the longest in crossing a 
 troubled sea to a haven of physical 
 quiet and mental rest. There are in- 
 stances where women have never suf- 
 fered from any of these causes, have 
 always been regular in their physical 
 manifestations, and yet find great in- 
 convenience at the period of the change 
 of life. 
 
 There are some who have felt justi- 
 fied in classifying temperaments and 
 constitutions as indicating the liability 
 of different persons to disease and suf- 
 fering during the period of the climac- 
 teric. One good authority upon these 
 subjects says : " Those of weak consti-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 223 
 
 tutions sometimes fail of the necessary 
 stamina to carry them easily through 
 the trials of this transition period. It 
 lias been remarked that the lymphatic 
 temperament is the most favorable to 
 an easy change. Women with this 
 temperament suffer less from nervous 
 or physical disorders, and quickly show 
 signs of having been benefited by what 
 has occurred. Those of a sanguine tem- 
 perament are more liable to floodings 
 and to its symptoms ; but such disor- 
 ders with them usually readily yield to 
 treatment. The bilious temperament 
 predisposes to disorders of the stom- 
 ach and liver at this epoch ; while 
 the union of the nervous with the 
 bilious temperament seems to predis- 
 pose to mental diseases. The most 
 suffering at this time of life is expe- 
 rienced by women of a nervous tem- 
 perament." 
 
 While the above statements are 
 measurably true, too much reliance 
 may be placed upon such classifications. 
 It would be safer to say that "every 
 woman is a law unto herself " at this
 
 224 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 period of her life. The experience of 
 one cannot be taken as a safe index to 
 what the experience of another will be. 
 It is probable that material conditions 
 have quite as much to do with the ex- 
 perience of each person at this period 
 as their own personal temperament. 
 The poor who are exposed to want and 
 undue anxiety, who are subjected to 
 severe labor for prolonged periods, who 
 are deprived of the necessary rest and 
 diversion, or who are confined in close, 
 damp and badly-ventilated rooms, are 
 all unfavorably situated to meet the 
 stress and the strain of this period of 
 life. Those who are rich, with plenty of 
 time and money at command, but who 
 have sold themselves into bondage to ex- 
 acting social obligations, to the demands 
 of " society," to late hours and injurious 
 feastings, are likely to suffer quite as 
 much as those who have to endure pov- 
 erty and want. 
 
 As far as possible, at this period of 
 life, every woman should have some 
 occupation in which she is sufficiently 
 interested, so as to engage her mind
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 225 
 
 and call her attention from herself. 
 Moderate home and other duties are 
 not a disadvantage, but a very great 
 blessing. Many a woman is saved at 
 this period from disastrous mental re- 
 sults by duties which call her from her- 
 self that they may bestow upon her 
 their largest blessings. 
 
 But while occupations of mind and 
 of body are beneficial, women at this 
 period should be relieved from undue 
 burdens and cares, large exaction and 
 all sources of worry and excitement. 
 Her surroundings should be made as 
 cheerful as possible, and all sources of 
 annoyance and vexation should be care- 
 fully removed. Interesting books, con- 
 genial companionship, and occasional 
 change of scene with suitable diversion 
 should all be carefully sought, in order 
 that nature may be placed, during this 
 period of stress, amid the most helpful 
 surroundings. 
 
 Special attention should also be given 
 
 to the matter of diet. The food should 
 
 be wholesome and nourishing, and while 
 
 it should be adequate in quantity, the 
 
 15
 
 226 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 stomach should at no time be over- 
 loaded. Stimulants should be care- 
 fully avoided, and where close attention 
 is given to the subject, it will be found 
 that tea and coffee only tend to in- 
 creased nervousness and to interrupted 
 sleep and rest. Bitters and stimulants 
 should be wholly avoided. 
 
 Where the digestion is defective and 
 the appetite capricious, and the feeling 
 of weakness or languor induces the 
 patient to desire a stimulant, or where 
 the food is not relished at the regular 
 meals, a cup of cocoa, a glass of milk 
 with the white of an egg beaten in it, 
 a cup of broth, or of beef tea may be 
 taken with advantage between meals. 
 " Bitters," " tonics " and the like so 
 often taken at these times can only re- 
 sult in injury and should be carefully 
 avoided. 
 
 This period of life should be ap- 
 proached with careful attention to 
 physical culture. Ten or fifteen min- 
 utes daily devoted to light gymnastics, 
 dumb bells, exercisers, or some means 
 of physical culture, immediately after
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 227 
 
 rising in the morning, and continued 
 through the years which lead up to 
 the period of change of life will work 
 wonders in securing relief from the 
 weaknesses, ills and aches which so 
 frequently attend women at this 
 period. This form of physical culture 
 should also be continued with modera- 
 tion during the period of the climac- 
 teric change. Outdoor exercises of 
 every kind, which are not excessive, a 
 moderate amount of walking, carriage 
 riding, etc., will be found beneficial, 
 both as a preparation for the change, 
 and as a means of overcoming the ills 
 when they are confronted. 
 
 Women suffer infinitely more than 
 men with a tendency to constipation 
 throughout their entire lives ; but at no 
 period is it more prevalent or more in- 
 jurious in its effects than during the 
 period of change of life. This tend- 
 ency can be largely corrected by drink- 
 ing a glass of water each morning upon 
 rising, or at least a half hour before 
 sitting down to breakfast ; and during 
 the day a sufficient quantity of water
 
 228 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 should be taken so as adequately to 
 flush the sewage of the body, both 
 through the bowels and through the 
 kidneys. Where constipation is per- 
 sistent, the flushing of the colon, as in- 
 dicated in a previous chapter, will be 
 found very beneficial. Care should be 
 taken to hav« the water of the proper 
 temperature, not exceeding one hun- 
 dred and two degrees Fahrenheit, and 
 it should be injected slowly, so as to 
 occasion no pain at the time or subse- 
 quent griping. Where the patient 
 does not sleep well, the rectional injec- 
 tion, suggested in a preceding chapter 
 to men subject to enlarged prostates, 
 will be found one of the very best 
 means of emptying the lower portion 
 of the large intestine, giving relief from 
 local pressure, and inducing a sound 
 and healthful rest and sleep. 
 
 The vaginal douche of hot water at 
 a temperature of about one hundred 
 and ten to fifteen, frequently recom- 
 mended by physicians, is generally re- 
 garded as good treatment. In this 
 matter, however, the patient should at
 
 31 AN OF FORTY- FIVE. 229 
 
 all times bo guided by her family 
 physician. 
 
 As far as possible the room should 
 be bright and sunny, and well venti- 
 lated at all times, especially during the 
 night. The air should not only be 
 fresh, but it should be received into 
 the lungs in abundance. In order to 
 do this, it is important that the body 
 should be unrestricted by the unnat- 
 ural pressure so universally inflicted 
 upon the lungs and the contents of the 
 abdomen by the cruel and destructive 
 corset. Nature is kind in all her in- 
 tentions, and is anxious to heal all our 
 maladies, if we will only give her a 
 fair opportunity. If, on the earliest 
 indications of the change of life, women 
 would only pursue a course in harmony 
 with nature's laws and demands, all 
 who are in fair health at the time 
 might hope to pass this period without 
 disease, and largely without discomfort. 
 
 At no period in a woman's life can 
 she use her power of self-control with 
 better results to herself than while 
 passing through this trying ordeal.
 
 230 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 Then, if ever, she should plant her foot 
 firmly and refuse to yield, by permit- 
 ting herself to give way to dejection 
 or despondency, or to permit the im- 
 agination to add to the real stresses of 
 the climacteric change. Then, if ever, 
 she should realize that the physical is 
 largely subjective to the mental, and 
 that her physical comfort must be se- 
 cured and maintained by a healthy 
 mind. Will power, properly exer- 
 cised, at this time, will be more benefi- 
 cial than all the medicines and diver- 
 sions which could possibly be sug- 
 gested. 
 
 The woman who approaches the 
 period of a change of life while her 
 husband is still under the strain of a 
 strong sexual passion, is surely unfor- 
 tunate, and, if he is unthoughtful and 
 not given to a spirit of great self- 
 denial, she is likely to be rendered 
 truly miserable. Any sexual relation 
 at this period is likely to result inju- 
 riously. If the husband is himself pass- 
 ing through a corresponding change in 
 his own physical life, he will find ab-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 231 
 
 solute continence not only desirable 
 for his wife, but also for himself. 
 Should their experiences however not 
 coincide in this matter, duty demands 
 that consideration for his wife should 
 bind him to the most thoughtful and 
 considerate course of conduct. 
 
 From the very commencement of 
 the period of change of life, a steady 
 diminution in the sexual passion of 
 woman is generally observed, and in a 
 few years at most after this period the 
 sexual passion quite generally wholly 
 disappears. There are, however, ex- 
 ceptional instances in which the reverse 
 is true. In occasional instances, with 
 the beginning of the menopause, the 
 sexual inclination increases in intensitv 
 and sometimes even greatly exceeds 
 that experienced in any earlier pe- 
 riod of life. Such a condition should 
 always be regarded with apprehension, 
 as it is contrary to the law of na- 
 ture, and may safely be regarded as 
 indicating that there is something 
 physically wrong. Such a condition 
 usually indicates a disease which may
 
 232 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 
 
 be looked for in the womb or ovaries, 
 and the gratification of this abnormal 
 desire would only tend to aggravate 
 the cause of which this desire is simply 
 a symptom. In all such instances 
 early medical attention should be 
 sought, and medical advice carefully 
 followed. If medical advice is not 
 sought, the probabilities are that coun- 
 sel will be sought and help asked when 
 it is too late. 
 
 It is only natural for an anxious 
 husband to inquire how long the 
 stresses of the climacteric period are 
 likely to continue. ISTo universal rule 
 can be laid down. A general average 
 of about two and a half, to three years, 
 might be stated. Many women count 
 upon giving up eight or ten years of 
 the best portion of their life to the 
 trying ordeal of this transition period. 
 Six and eight years is not unusual, and 
 in some rare instances it projects itself 
 over a period of ten or twelve years. 
 There are instances where the change 
 is affected in the brief period of a few 
 months or even weeks ; and there are
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 233 
 
 some women who pass the climacteric 
 period scarcely conscious of any change 
 having taken place in their physical 
 being. It is, however, regarded by 
 physicians as not desirable that the 
 change should be accomplished in too 
 brief a period, as such change is more 
 likely to be followed by permanent 
 physical and mental conditions which 
 are altogether undesirable.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MENO- 
 PAUSE. 
 
 Menstrual Manifestations. — Other Manifestations 
 Enumerated. — Mental Composure as a Means of 
 Relief. — Other Means. — No Grounds for Serious 
 Apprehensions. — Mortality of Men from Forty 
 to Fifty Greater than that of Women. — The 
 Discomforts not All Imaginary. — The Many 
 Ills Which Women Suffer at the Climacteric. — 
 " Queer Feeling in the Head." — Insomnia and 
 Mental Depression. — Hysteria. — The Many De- 
 mands upon Husband for Patience and Sym- 
 pathy. — Manifestations of Aversion to Husband. 
 — Turning Against Her Children and Best 
 Friends. — Charging Husband as Being the 
 Author of All She Suffers. 
 
 It would be difficult to name the 
 manifestations which might be relied 
 upon as indicating the approach of the 
 " change of life " in any given case. 
 There are likely to be a variety of 
 manifestations dependent upon the 
 temperament and physical condition 
 
 235
 
 236 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 of the patient ; for the symptoms in 
 different cases do not follow in the 
 same order. The menstrual manifes- 
 tations are not always the first to make 
 their appearance, but changed condi- 
 tions in this respect are generally in- 
 dicative of some corresponding change 
 in the physical condition. When the 
 climacteric period of life is reached the 
 menstrual flow may suddenly cease 
 never to return ; or it may gradually 
 become irregular with varying inter- 
 vals of greater or less length. In some 
 instances the flow may be less abun- 
 dant than usual, while at other times 
 it may be attended with such profuse- 
 ness as to amount almost to flooding. In 
 other instances symptoms of pregnancy 
 may seem to the woman herself to be 
 so pronounced, that, for weeks or even 
 months, she may regard herself as in 
 an expectant condition. 
 
 There may be flushes of heat fol- 
 lowed by chilliness, palpitation of the 
 heart, pains in the back and loins, con- 
 stipation or diarrhea, swelled limbs or 
 enlargement about the joints, an un-
 
 MAX OF FORTY- FIVE. 237 
 
 usual fullness of the breasts, headaches 
 with severe heat, or burning in the top 
 of the head, or pain as if there were a 
 soreness at the base of the brain. In 
 some instances there is dimness of 
 vision, with specks floating before the 
 eyes, dizziness, a sense of uncertainty 
 in walking, loss of voice with or with- 
 out aching at the base of the tongue, 
 sleeplessness, strange cravings, a sense 
 of oppressiveness in breathing, symp- 
 toms of neuralgia, and not infrequently 
 of hysteria ; sometimes instead of flood- 
 ing there is a copious bleeding at the 
 nose, and in some instances even spit- 
 ting of blood. 
 
 These manifestations need not be 
 the occasion of any undue alarm, but 
 it is generally wise to place the woman 
 under the care of a competent physi- 
 cian, as it will contribute largely to 
 her mental composure, which is very 
 important at this juncture of life. 
 Many of these manifestations may be 
 measurably modified by hygienic care, 
 proper exercise and diversion, and most 
 of all by an intelligent understanding
 
 238 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 of her own condition, accompanied by 
 a resolute will. 
 
 There is danger at this period that 
 the woman will become undulv de- 
 pressed and apprehensive, while the 
 fact remains that there is seldom serious 
 danger, the conditions calling simply 
 for patient endurance while nature 
 is accomplishing its transition work. 
 There is no ground for the popular 
 opinion that the period of the change 
 of life is one of peculiar danger to 
 woman. The mortality tables show 
 that between the ages of forty and 
 fifty there are more deaths among 
 males than among females. A false 
 conclusion, however, must not be 
 drawn from this fact. Such figures 
 Avould not warrant the inference that 
 the period of change of life in woman 
 merits little or no attention. The 
 symptoms attendant upon this period 
 are sometimes alarming, sometimes 
 painful, and often entailing sad conse- 
 quences, although rarely attended with 
 any fatal results. 
 
 It is a great injustice and wrong for
 
 31 AN OF FORTY-FIVE. 239 
 
 either the husband or for the physician 
 to aggravate the patient by ridiculing 
 or even underestimating the nature of 
 her ills. The discomforts which a 
 woman suffers at this time are not all 
 imaginary, and the physician Avho un- 
 derestimates or depreciates these dis- 
 comforts and sufferings is only likely 
 to aggravate a condition which he has 
 been called to relieve. 
 
 Where the monthly manifestation 
 suddenly disappears, there is oftentimes 
 consequent alarm. Such fears, how- 
 ever, are groundless, if the other func- 
 tions are normal and there are no 
 serious indications of a deterioration 
 of health. Should the flow be unusu- 
 ally profuse, amounting to flooding, 
 and should it seem at all persistent, it 
 will be wise to consult medical aid, as 
 such a symptom may be indicative of 
 unhealthy conditions in the interior of 
 the womb or adjacent parts. 
 
 It is not unusual for women to speak 
 of " a queer feeling in the head." This 
 is sometimes attended with a sense of 
 uncertainty, not only in walking, but
 
 240 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 it sometimes induces women to express 
 apprehension concerning their own 
 mental condition. In connection with 
 this symptom it is important to say- 
 that all this may be the result of a 
 change in the eyes, which has so 
 affected the vision, as to render the use 
 of glasses necessary. Even with those 
 who are accustomed to the use of glasses 
 there is need of frequent changes and 
 adjustment so as to avoid the pecul- 
 iar " headaches " which defective vi- 
 sion causes above the eyes and just in 
 front of the temples. Even where per- 
 sons have worn glasses for years and 
 have had frequent experiences with 
 this peculiar sort of headache, it often 
 takes a month or t wo for the person to 
 determine that the " queer feeling in 
 the head" is not occasioned by a 
 mental, but by a physical condition, 
 and that this physical condition is due 
 entirely to the straining of the eyes 
 and the consequent pain in the over- 
 strained nerves, not within the brain, 
 but without and just beneath the sur- 
 face upon the forehead. In all cases
 
 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 211 
 
 where this " queer feeling in the head " 
 is experienced it is best, first of all, to 
 consult the oculist. Should the feeling 
 complained of in the head not disap- 
 pear after the glasses have been ad- 
 justed to the needs of the eyes, it will 
 then be time enough to seek relief 
 from a condition which cannot be es- 
 caped so long as the eyes are strained 
 and the nerves suffer as the direct re- 
 sult. 
 
 In the earlier period of these changes 
 many Avomen suffer with insomnia, 
 and not a few with hysteria. Waken- 
 ing at night the patient may be given 
 to depressing meditations upon the loss 
 of youth, the coming of gray hairs, 
 the disappearance of sexual inclination 
 and the dangers of the climacteric 
 period. To most women such con- 
 siderations are depressing, but they 
 cannot be considered as altogether 
 abnormal. In other instances there 
 are clear manifestations of hysteria. 
 The husband may awake to find his 
 wife in a fit of utter despondency, and 
 crying as if her heart would break. 
 
 16
 
 212 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 His efforts to comfort or console are 
 likely to be wholly fruitless, if not 
 positively aggravating to her. At 
 such times women frequently leave 
 their beds and steal into some unoccu- 
 pied room and cry by the hour. After 
 the husband is once convinced that his 
 presence or consolations can afford no 
 relief, it is usually well for him to allow 
 his wife a solitary half -hour or an hour, 
 that she may pour out her deep feeling 
 in unrestrained tears. Until this is 
 done, generally nothing can afford re- 
 lief, or put the patient in condition to 
 sleep. 
 
 This period, during which the patient 
 is liable to fits of depression, hysteria 
 and tears may continue for months or 
 even for years. While such conditions 
 may be very trying to the husband, he 
 should remember that it is still more 
 trying to his wife. If he thinks the 
 conditions are purely imaginary, he 
 should remember, that to the woman 
 herself they are nevertheless real. It 
 is plainly his duty, under the direction 
 of a wise and considerate physician, to
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 243 
 
 display the utmost patience and con- 
 sideration at all times, which no affec- 
 tionate husband can properly deny to 
 her whom he loves. Although at times, 
 or perhaps almost constantly during 
 this period she may be unlovable and 
 unreasonable, yet this does not relieve 
 him from his plain and manifest duty. 
 While the aches and ills, real and 
 imaginary, which the wife suffers, ren- 
 der her deserving of the utmost con- 
 sideration, yet we are free to admit 
 that the continuous and prolonged de- 
 mands which are made upon the pa- 
 tience and the physical endurance of 
 the husband also render him a subject 
 for commiseration and sympathy. If 
 he could reason with his wife, or al- 
 leviate her condition by expressions of 
 sympathy and affection, his efforts 
 would have their due recognition and 
 reward ; but instead of this, all his ef- 
 forts are likely to be not only ineffec- 
 tual and unappreciated, but even unac- 
 ceptable. The wife who formerly Avas 
 affectionate and considerate, is likely 
 now to manifest an aversion for him
 
 244 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 "which is in strong contrast with her 
 previous life and character. These are 
 manifestations which grow out of phys- 
 ical conditions which the husband 
 should bear patiently until the condi- 
 tions have changed. 
 
 Where there are serious nervous or 
 mental complications, the wife may not 
 only manifest aversion for her husband, 
 but may even treat him as though he 
 were her greatest earthly enemy. At 
 times she may also turn against her 
 children, and if she should manifest a 
 desire to be relieved of family cares 
 and the presence of her husband and 
 children for a period, compliance with 
 her desire will contribute to her more 
 speedy return to a normal condition. 
 A few days of absence from home will 
 arouse the mother-heart, quicken a de- 
 sire to see her children and to be at home 
 again with her husband and family. 
 
 One of the symptoms which so gen- 
 erally accompanies this period of change 
 of life in woman is her tendency to re- 
 gard her condition as serious, and to 
 blame her husband as the author of all
 
 MAN OF FOETF-FIV& 215 
 
 the ills which she now suffers. One 
 characteristic of the complaint which 
 she now makes, is, not that her present 
 condition is due to present exactions, 
 neglect or wrong, but she will place 
 the blame in the years which have pre- 
 ceded. She may accuse him of exact- 
 ing sexual demands, charge him with 
 having neglected her and her children 
 to give attention to business, religious 
 duties or social exactions ; she may 
 claim that her present state is the re- 
 sult of conditions attendant upon pov- 
 erty, because in past years she had an 
 undue amount of household care and 
 worry, or any one of a great variety of 
 complaints which she may now enter 
 against the husband. If, however, he 
 is at the present time kind and consid- 
 erate, and she can charge him with no 
 present wrong, her persistent repetition 
 of injustice, inconsiderateness and ex- 
 actions in the past, will, with the other 
 attendant symptoms, be an almost in- 
 fallible evidence that the woman has 
 entered upon the period of a change of 
 life.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ATTENDANT PHYSICAL CHANGES. 
 
 Change in Physical Form of Woman at Menopause. 
 — Tending to Masculine Characteristics. — Cause 
 of Increase in Size and Weight. — Growth of Hair 
 Upon the Face. — Modification in the Voice. — Hot 
 Flushes. — Hemorrhage. — Tumors of the Womb. 
 — Cancers aud Abnormal Growths. — Their Cause. 
 — Diseases of the Kidneys. — Symptoms in Fifty- 
 two Climacteric Cases Classified. — Changed Con- 
 dition of Womb and Vagina. — Consequent 
 Changes in Nervous System. — Disappearance of 
 Sexual Sensation and Desire. — Similar Changes 
 in Men. — Desires of Husband and Wife Harmon- 
 ized. — The Period of Physical Change the Door- 
 way to a Larger Manhood and Womanhood. 
 
 During the years of childhood the 
 physical forms of boys and girls are 
 not differentiated to that degree which 
 is observed after boys have passed the 
 years of puberty and girls have begun 
 to menstruate and have entered upon 
 the life of womanhood. When the girl 
 changes to a woman the body usually 
 takes on an increased amount of fat 
 
 247
 
 248 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 which is deposited about the loins and 
 hips. The shoulders of the boy become 
 broader, his chest deeper, his voice 
 stronger, and the beard begins to start 
 upon his face. 
 
 During the years of reproduction 
 each of the sexes is marked by its own 
 distinctive characteristics. When the 
 period of reproduction is passed and 
 the climacteric period of life has been 
 attained, there are again numerous 
 physical changes. Instead of assuming 
 more marked sexual characteristics, 
 each of the sexes then seems to tend 
 measurably to assume the characteris- 
 tics of the opposite sex. At the time 
 of the change of life in women there is 
 usually a visible deposit of fatty tissue 
 on the lower part of the back of the 
 neck. These accumulations oftentimes 
 become distinct prominences, and afford 
 a safe index to the period of the 
 woman's life. The legs and arms lose 
 their roundness of outlines, and even 
 where they do not grow more fatty, 
 they yet increasingly resemble those of 
 the opposite sex. The breasts, how-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 249 
 
 ever, do not partake of a corresponding 
 increase in size, but tend to become 
 flat and hard. This is occasioned by 
 the change in the substance of the 
 glands, which loses its spongy nature. 
 The abdomen enlarges, in some in- 
 stances to such an extent as to lead the 
 wife, in the absence of her periodic 
 sickness, to believe that she is again to 
 become a mother. 
 
 The cause of this added flesh is not 
 difficult to understand and explain. 
 From fourteen to forty-five years of 
 age, or generally for a period of about 
 thirty years, each twenty-eighth day 
 the normal woman usually loses from 
 six to eight ounces of blood. When 
 this ceases, at middle life, the blood 
 which was previously discharged from 
 the body contributes its share to the 
 building up of the physical tissue. The 
 same tendency is seen in birds, in 
 poultry yards and elsewhere ; with the 
 diminished egg production there comes 
 an increased growth and weight of the 
 body of the bird. Taking six ounces 
 as the average periodic loss of women,
 
 250 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 
 
 the amount of blood discharged in 
 thirty years would amount to two thou- 
 sand three hundred and forty ounces, 
 over eighteen gallons or nearly half a 
 barrel. 
 
 "With these physical changes there 
 oftentimes comes a manifest tendency 
 for the hair upon a woman's face to 
 increase and strengthen, until it some- 
 what resembles the beard of a man. 
 This, however, is not the case, except 
 in instances where there has been a 
 tendency to a large growth of hair 
 during the earlier years. The voice 
 also grows less musical and more harsh, 
 and the changes both in men and 
 women result in such a diminished 
 sweetness of tone as eventually leads 
 to pronouncing the voice " cracked." 
 "Women are also characterized after 
 this period with a stronger mentality, 
 and men with less zeal and fire, accom- 
 panied by more tender thoughtfulness. 
 "While increasing years may fit them 
 for council, because of their increased 
 caution, yet their diminished courage 
 unfits them for war.
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 251 
 
 There are also numerous changes 
 which take place in the vital organs 
 throughout the entire body ; but these 
 should not be regarded as the degen- 
 erations of age, but the growth of 
 the organism has been completed and 
 nature is striking a balance with wise 
 reference to the needs of future 
 economy. 
 
 Among the distressing symptoms 
 which may appear, and from which 
 some medical authorities state that 
 about eight per cent, of women suffer 
 at this period of their life are "hot 
 flushes." The blood vessels about the 
 head and neck seem most affected, yet 
 the surface of the entire body may 
 share the temporary disturbance. The 
 patient may complain of an unusual 
 heat in the back of the head and neck, 
 and this may continue at intervals of 
 hours or longer for a considerable 
 period. 
 
 The flushings, or flashes of heat, 
 come rather suddenly, as of a rush of 
 blood to the head, which may. extend 
 also to the arms and legs and entire
 
 252 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 trunk of the body. The woman feels 
 a decided glow of heat as if transported 
 into a very hot room. Perspiration, 
 more or less profuse, may follow, and 
 even terminate in a chill ; or the chill 
 may come first and be followed by the 
 hot flush. 
 
 These sudden flushings may occur 
 during the day or night, and may even 
 precede each other at short intervals. 
 They are frequently attended with 
 very profuse perspiration, and some- 
 times with a sense of suffocation or 
 violent throbbing. They may also 
 sometimes be accompanied by nausea 
 and vomiting. They are often pro- 
 duced by the drinking of liquors, tea 
 and coffee, or even by eating stimulat- 
 ing food. They are also the result of 
 sudden emotion, such as fright, anger, 
 grief, or unusual anxiety. 
 
 One of the symptoms which usually 
 causes the greatest alarm among 
 women at the menopause is hemor- 
 rhage. This may be due to general 
 or local causes, but unless it is ex- 
 cessive, it need not be the occasion
 
 31 AN OF FO ETV- FIVE. 253 
 
 for any serious anxiety. If, however, 
 the amount seems excessive, medical 
 attention should be secured, so that its 
 cause may be determined and the best 
 remedies applied. As there are vari- 
 ous causes which might lead to such 
 a condition, medical experience and 
 skill will be best qualified to determine 
 both the cause and the treatment. 
 
 At the time of middle life, more 
 than at any other period, various 
 tumors of the womb, such as fibroids 
 and cancers are liable to appear. Can- 
 cers, however, are not so likely to 
 occur, except in instances where the 
 womb has been lacerated at child- 
 birth, and the injury has not been 
 properly repaired. 
 
 The fibroid tumor may be one 
 among many causes of excessive hem- 
 orrhage. As we have already said, 
 such cases should receive careful med- 
 ical attention ; but they need not al- 
 ways be the occasion of any serious 
 alarm. They usually yield to proper 
 treatment, and sometimes even disap- 
 pear of themselves. Where they have
 
 254 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 previously existed, they sometimes 
 choose the period of menopause as the 
 time for their departure, but in some 
 instances, however, this period of life 
 affords them an opportunity for more 
 rapid growth and the occasion for more 
 serious consideration. 
 
 Among the other forms of morbid 
 growths may be mentioned the poly- 
 pus and various small growths known 
 as " vegetation." In the hands of an 
 intelligent physician none of these 
 need be the occasion of serious anxiety 
 to the patient. 
 
 Perhaps the malady most generally 
 feared among women of middle life, 
 and not without just cause, is cancer. 
 This is more prevalent among those 
 who are married and have become 
 mothers, than among the unmarried. 
 The difficulty is likely to localize it- 
 self either in the womb or in the 
 breast. Medical authorities assert that 
 the provoking cause of this malady in 
 many instances is premature labor, un- 
 natural abortion, or lacerations of the 
 womb at childbirth. Where this
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 255 
 
 growth is located in the breast, its be- 
 ginning is likely to be determined by 
 previous injuries received during the 
 period of nursing or a bruise subse- 
 quently inflicted. 
 
 By some it has been thought tbat 
 these growths have their origin in 
 physical pain, mental suffering, an- 
 guish or grief. For this reason a few 
 physicians have thought that cancer 
 should be classed among nervous dis- 
 eases. When a tumor or ulcer appears, 
 a competent physician will be best 
 qualified to determine whether it is 
 cancerous or not. Where such a con- 
 dition exists it is best that no time 
 should be lost in such treatment as 
 will preserve the surrounding tissue 
 from the infection and the spread of 
 the disease. 
 
 Diseases of the kidneys are more 
 likely to occur after the period of mid- 
 dle life, than before ; and due atten- 
 tion should be given to this subject, 
 both by men and women by means of 
 a periodic examination of the urine, so 
 that where such disorder exists, its
 
 256 3IAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 early discovery may afford a more 
 certain correction. 
 
 In the current number of the Amer- 
 ican Gynaecological and Obstetrical 
 Journal, Anna M. Galbraith, M. D., of 
 New York, in a list of fifty-two cases 
 of women who had passed the meno- 
 pause states that five had never suf- 
 fered the slightest inconvenience. " Of 
 these, one was single and only one had 
 had one miscarriage, ten had suffered 
 at the time of the menopause from 
 malaise, but not sufficiently to call in 
 a medical attendant, thirty-seven were 
 more or less seriously ill, thirty of 
 these needed local as well as constitu- 
 tional treatment, and seven constitu- 
 tional treatment only." 
 
 The prominent symptoms of the 
 climacteric in this list of fifty-two 
 cases were as follows : 
 
 Marked debility, 24 ; intense nerv- 
 ousness, 31 ; neurasthenia, 9 ; melan- 
 cholia, 10 ; headache, 14; neuralgia, 6 ; 
 hysteria, 1 ; irritable heart, 11 ; tachy- 
 cardia, 8 ; insomnia, 19 ; indigestion, 
 32 ; constipation, 28 ; diarrhea, 3 ; leu-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 257 
 
 corrhcea, 38 ; rheumatism, 21 ; gout, 1 ; 
 Bright's disease, 12 ; hemorrhage, 6 ; 
 alcoholism, 2 ; corpulency, 2. 
 
 But there are natural physical 
 changes which are common to all 
 women at this period and which are 
 of special interest and important to 
 thoughtful and considerate husbands. 
 At the beginning of the menopause 
 period, because of the increased flow of 
 blood, due to local and temporary 
 causes, the size of the uterus or womb 
 frequently enlarges, but later it grad- 
 ually diminishes in size, the walls be- 
 come thinner; and the vagina also 
 undergoes similar changes. The cer- 
 vix, or neck of the womb, becomes 
 shorter and thinner, sometimes harder, 
 and in other instances flabby as a mem- 
 brane. In some instances the upper 
 part of the vagina is so much con- 
 tracted as to produce folds closely 
 resembling those which under other 
 conditions attend inflammation about 
 the neck of the womb. 
 
 The entire reproductive system un- 
 dergoes corresponding changes in 
 17
 
 258 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 which the nerve centres sympathize, 
 and after a given period of longer or 
 shorter duration the nerves fail to 
 respond to sexual sensations and the 
 desire for the sexual relation entirely 
 disappears. Generally from the be- 
 ginning of the period of change of 
 life, there is a gradual diminution of 
 the sexual passion which eventually 
 entirely disappears. 
 
 This atrophy, or diminution in the 
 size of the reproductive organs of 
 women finds a somewhat similar 
 change in the reproductive organs of 
 men at the corresponding period of 
 their physical change ; and where the 
 husband is intelligent, and judicious in 
 the preservation of his own strength 
 and is desirous of preserving his phys- 
 ical and mental vigor to advanced 
 years, his sexual inclinations are likely 
 to be sympathetic with the new condi- 
 tions upon which the wife has entered. 
 
 Where husband and wife are equally 
 mated, God has beneficently harmonized 
 all the desires, aspirations and inclina- 
 tions, and no apprehension or fear need
 
 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 259 
 
 be entertained concerning difference 
 of desire or inclination during the 
 years after the period of the meno- 
 pause. Where both are actuated by 
 thoughtful consideration, the happiness 
 and the comfort of each will be the 
 sole purpose and desire of the other. 
 
 According to the intention of nature, 
 the period of physical change, both in 
 men and women, is but the opening of 
 the doorway into a larger manhood 
 and womanhood, with enlarged oppor- 
 tunities and possibilities of usefulness 
 and blessing. That same infinite wis- 
 dom and tender love which have char- 
 acterized the life and experience of the 
 earlier years will continue to be un- 
 folded and discovered in larger meas- 
 ure as each succeeding year brings its 
 quota of experience and preparation 
 for that larger life which is beyond. 
 "When the traveller with his face to- 
 wards the crimson glories of the de- 
 clining day recognizes the fact that the 
 hours of his toil and pilgrimage are 
 only closing upon the earth so that 
 they may open in heaven in the
 
 260 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 morning of eternal joy and splen- 
 dor and blessings, he can go cheer- 
 fully forward being filled with faith 
 and confidence.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 MENTAL MANIFESTATIONS DURING 
 THE MENOPAUSE PERIOD. 
 
 Effect of the Menopause Upon the Mind. — Loss 
 of Interest, Increased Irritability. — The Woman 
 Becomes Suspicious of Herself and Others. — 
 Effect Upon the Imagination and the Moral 
 Nature. — A Case Before a Class of Medical Stu- 
 dents. — How They Perplex Their Pastors. — 
 Symptoms of Moral Depravity. — Need of Intel- 
 ligence Upon Part of Husband and Others. — 
 The Gentle Woman Transformed Into a Terror. 
 — Arrays Herself Against Husband and Best 
 Friends. — Dissatisfied with Everything. — The 
 Period When Families go to Pieces. — Insanity 
 Among Men and Women at Climacteric. — 
 Views of Medical Authority. — Character of Hos- 
 pitals for Mental Sickness. 
 
 The physical changes which take 
 place during the period of the meno- 
 pause oftentimes have their serious 
 effects, not only upon the nerves, but 
 upon the mental condition also. In 
 order that a man at middle life may 
 
 261
 
 2G2 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 the better understand his wife and con- 
 sequently be the better situated to 
 sympathize with her, and also fore- 
 know some of the perplexities into 
 which her condition may plunge him, 
 it is important that he should know 
 how women are liable to be affected 
 mentally at this period of their life. 
 
 While, as we have already said, 
 there are some women who pass the 
 period of menopause scarcely being 
 conscious that any physical changes 
 have taken place, and never having 
 suffered any serious nervous or men- 
 tal trouble, the great majority of them 
 do not enjoy the exemption which 
 comes with this more favored condi- 
 tion. There are very few women who 
 do not measurably lose their interest 
 in the affairs of daily life, become irri- 
 table, cross, unreasonable, and even 
 uncompanionable. Many who would 
 not be suspected, by those who meet 
 them only socially or casually, as being 
 at all affected b}^ the changes through 
 which they are passing, may neverthe- 
 less exhibit to the members of their
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 2G3 
 
 own family evidences of melancholia 
 and insanity which awaken grave ap- 
 prehension. 
 
 It is not unusual for the physical 
 changes which take place to react and 
 cause a nervousness which renders the 
 patient intensely uncomfortable, and 
 which she finds it hard to bear. When 
 alone, or even in the presence of 
 others, she may clasp her hands and 
 cry out in despair that she is " unable 
 to bear this condition, and that if it 
 continues long she is sure she will lose 
 her mind." She indulges in mental 
 vagaries, loses certainty in her mental 
 methods, becomes confused, imagines 
 that she is suspicioned and watched. 
 Society is apt to lose its attractiveness 
 to her, but solitude is even more unde- 
 sirable, as it allows her an opportunity 
 for dwelling unduly upon real or im- 
 aginary ills. 
 
 If her nervous system seems dis- 
 turbed, she fancies that she is not able 
 to control her muscular movements, or 
 to walk with firmness, and that she 
 will be suspected of being affected by
 
 264 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 wine. If her breasts enlarge, as is 
 often the case at this period, she is 
 likely to fancy that she is affected with 
 cancer, and she pictures herself the 
 prospective heir of all of the terrors of 
 this dreadful disease. If she has an 
 attack of indigestion and the heart 
 palpitates from sympathy, she will be 
 sure that she is destined to drop dead 
 in the street. 
 
 Her moral nature is likely to be 
 sympathetic and to be affected by her 
 nervous and mental condition. She 
 may be seized with gloomy depressions 
 and give expression to doubts concern- 
 ing spiritual things, which she would 
 never before have entertained, much 
 less have expressed. She may tem- 
 porarily lose her interest in the Church, 
 in her Bible and even in her private 
 devotions. She becomes fretful and 
 peevish, and annoys those around her 
 by a continued repetition of her 
 groundless fears, and becomes angry 
 at them when they show any annoy- 
 ance at her repetitions of what they 
 have already heard a hundred times or
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 2G5 
 
 more — and all that possibly during the 
 same day. In short she becomes 
 gloomy, despondent and wretched ; 
 and not a few possess the power to 
 bring the entire household into the 
 same wretched condition. { 
 
 If this picture seems dark, it will 
 nevertheless be recognized by many as 
 being thoroughly accurate. Not a 
 few husbands have been amazed to find 
 that a patient, confiding and devoted 
 wife has disappeared and that her place 
 is now occupied by an irritable, un- 
 reasonable, suspecting and threaten- 
 ing woman. Many a child has been 
 hopelessly perplexed to understand 
 how the loving, self-denying and de- 
 voted mother of a few years ago, could 
 be transformed into the creature of so 
 much petulance, impatience and un- 
 reasonableness. 
 
 It is that the wife may understand 
 herself, and that the husband and chil- 
 dren may comprehend something of 
 the nature of the physical changes and 
 the attendant nervous and mental dis- 
 turbance which the wife and mother
 
 266 MAN OF FORTY- FIVE. 
 
 now endures, and that their intelli- 
 gence may make them considerate, pa- 
 tient and sympathetic, that we have 
 undertaken in these chapters to set 
 forth her real condition. 
 
 The first intimation the writer ever 
 had of the conditions which manifest 
 themselves at the period of the meno- 
 pause — or indeed the first he ever knew 
 that women experience that modifica- 
 tion in their physical nature which is 
 known as a change of life — was when 
 he was about twenty-five years old. He 
 was at that time a student of theology 
 in the city of New York and was at- 
 tending occasional lectures and clinics 
 at the medical colleges. At these 
 clinics the patient is treated by the 
 lecturing physician before the entire 
 body of students. Some two or three 
 hundred students were present. A 
 woman having some aches and ills pre- 
 sented herself, and after the doctor had 
 received what he regarded as satisfac- 
 tory answers to several of his questions, 
 and had already given the students his 
 mistaken opinion with regard to the
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 2G7 
 
 case, he concluded that before dismiss- 
 ing the patient he would make a local 
 examination. When the speculum was 
 withdrawn and the sheet Avhich covered 
 the patient during the examination was 
 removed and the woman sat up again, 
 she turned to the doctor and inquired 
 whether he found anything in her 
 womb. Upon being assured that he 
 did not, the woman said that her 
 neighbors had been reporting that she 
 had a worm in her, and that on that 
 account she had decided to come for 
 examination in order that she might 
 convince them that their scandalous 
 statements were not true. The exam- 
 ining physician immediately discovered 
 that he had a case of mental disturb- 
 ance, occasioned by the menopause. 
 He was chagrined because of his mis- 
 taken diagnosis, and told his students 
 that they should never do as he had 
 just done, give an opinion before they 
 had made a thorough examination. 
 He then described some of the mental 
 disturbances which attend the meno- 
 pause and said that women during this
 
 268 3IAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 period oftentimes become a perplexity, 
 not only to their families and their 
 physicians, but even to their pastors. 
 He said that sometimes a woman 
 whose previous life has been devout 
 and godly, at this period of her life 
 may become disturbed concerning her 
 spiritual condition and may fancy that 
 she has committed the unpardonable 
 sin, or that she is to be eternally 
 damned. In this state of mental 
 anxiety she may go to her pastor for 
 counsel and comfort. All of his talk- 
 ing, reasoning, sympathizing and pray- 
 ing will be unavailing, and if ignorant 
 of the real cause of the woman's 
 mental condition he will be left in 
 great perplexity. He said that what 
 the woman wanted at that period, for 
 her comfort and well-being, was that 
 there should be intelligence upon the 
 part of every person with whom she 
 came in contact. 
 
 It might not be out of place in this 
 connection also to say, that not only 
 do the mental and moral natures mani- 
 fest great disturbance and even deteri-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 269 
 
 oration, but where there are diseased 
 local conditions, or instances of acute 
 local irritation, women whose lives and 
 speech have hitherto been without re- 
 proach, may give way to vulgar speech 
 and startlingly wanton ways. Such 
 instances call for prompt medical at- 
 tention, and the most charitable con- 
 sideration upon the part of all. 
 
 It is a matter of the utmost regret 
 that women at this period, when they 
 are so much a mystery to themselves, 
 should be so little understood by those 
 by whom they are surrounded. Many 
 a poor woman who has struggled 
 against great odds all her life, when 
 she comes to this period of menopause, 
 with its mysteries, its physical aches 
 and ills, with its nervousness and its 
 disturbed mental condition, has also to 
 confront the ignorance of her husband, 
 and receive at his hands not only a 
 lack of thoughtfulness and consider- 
 ation, but oftentimes, even brutality 
 and cruelty. She may be provoking 
 and even exasperating, but that is no 
 reason why the husband should not
 
 270 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 bring to the situation and the condi- 
 tion that intelligence which will not 
 only enable him to be considerate and 
 thoughtful, but enable his wife to un- 
 derstand herself and measurably to 
 modulate her speech and her conduct 
 by an intelligent understanding of her 
 own real condition. 
 
 If a woman who has been the em- 
 bodiment of thoughtfulness and affec- 
 tion is temporarily transmuted during 
 the period of this change and becomes 
 unreasonable and uncompanionable, 
 even to those whose affections she has 
 won by years of devotion, what should 
 be expected at such a time of stress 
 from a woman who is naturally un- 
 reasonable and contrary? If the 
 husband of the former needs patience 
 at this period, what shall be said of 
 the husband of the latter ? If he is a 
 farmer and in the winter stops for a 
 few moments at the stove, his wife will 
 say, "What are you sitting around 
 the stove for ? Get up and stir your 
 stumps. Go out and go to work, get 
 your blood in circulation and you will
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 271 
 
 not be cold." If he is at work out of 
 doors she screams at him and asks 
 whether he wants to freeze himself to 
 death — indoors or out of doors, stand- 
 ing or sitting, walking or riding, work- 
 ing or resting, night or day and all 
 the while, he is the target for reproof 
 and reproach. 
 
 We have known men to endure such 
 intolerable conditions for years. We 
 have known them to suffer with seem- 
 ing patience, and all the while re- 
 mained ignorant of the causes which 
 have rendered life intolerable, just at 
 that period, when their own mental 
 and physical condition seemed to de- 
 mand, even for themselves, a larger 
 measure of consideration and sym- 
 pathy than ever before. 
 
 I was one day passing through the 
 railway station when I met a brother 
 minister. I had incidentally learned 
 of the stress through which his wife 
 was passing. I inquired after the 
 health of his wife, expressed my s}^m- 
 pathy for him, and then enlarged 
 somewhat upon the conditions which
 
 272 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 attend so many women at this period, 
 and what their husbands are called 
 upon to suffer because of conditions 
 from which they cannot possibly 
 escape. I saw at once how much my 
 friend was interested. As I described 
 what I knew he was enduring in his 
 own home, tears started in his eyes, he 
 took my hand in both of his, and look- 
 ing me in the face he said, " Why, 
 brother Stall, you are the first man 
 who ever spoke to me upon this sub- 
 ject. I did not know that any one 
 else on earth was called upon to en- 
 dure what I am suffering. I have 
 never told anybody, and I have never 
 before talked with anybody upon this 
 subject. I have borne this unbearable 
 burden for several years, and I cannot 
 tell you how much you have comforted 
 me by what you have said. I now 
 understand the situation, and I can 
 look forward with hope, expecting 
 possible deliverance at some time in 
 the future." 
 
 This good brother, who was more 
 grateful than he seemed capable of
 
 31 AN OF FORTY- FIVE. 273 
 
 expressing, was only one of thousands 
 of men, intelligent upon other subjects, 
 but who are wholly uninformed upon 
 this. 
 
 It is important for the husband, at 
 this period in the life of his wife, to 
 understand that should there be any 
 pronounced mental disturbance, it may 
 manifest itself in any one of many 
 directions. We have known the wives 
 of some of the most devout and godly 
 ministers to charge them with being 
 worldly and devoid of that deep spirit- 
 uality which has always characterized 
 them in the eyes of others. We have 
 known other ministers to be annoyed 
 by charges of just the opposite kind. 
 Their wives accused them of " walking 
 on earth but living in heaven," "of 
 being too spiritually minded for this 
 world." "While neither of these classes 
 of wives may do more than threaten to 
 express their opinion publicly, yet the 
 repetition of their irritating charges, 
 over and over again, da} r after day, does 
 not tend to soothe the mind and bear- 
 inn; of even the most devoted husband. 
 
 18
 
 274 MAN OF FOETY-FIVE. 
 
 The wretched and unhappy condi- 
 tion of some women during this period, 
 renders them dissatisfied with every- 
 thing upon earth. They are much 
 under a spell of mental depression and 
 bodily unrest. They seek for them- 
 selves those conditions which they 
 fancy would come with a change of 
 residence or a change of the occupa- 
 tion of their husbands. But they may 
 change their residences again and 
 again, only to have their wives im- 
 mediately discover some new sources of 
 annoyance, and name some new reasons 
 to justify further changes. 
 
 At this period in a woman's life her 
 husband should do everything in his 
 power to adjust himself to her physical 
 and intellectual needs ; but there are 
 many instances where he can continue 
 through an indefinite series of readjust- 
 ments without securing the end sought, 
 namely, the satisfaction of his wife. 
 If the cause is subjective and mental, 
 instead of objective and real, perfect 
 adjustment cannot possibly be ex- 
 pected. After the considerate hus-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 275 
 
 band has done all ho can, his wife will 
 still continue to be dissatisfied. In 
 such instances the husband must use 
 his own best judgment when deciding 
 what course to be pursued, and then, 
 after deciding what to do, abide in his 
 decision. 
 
 Where there is a tendency to a pro- 
 nounced disturbed mental condition, 
 the wife may for a period, or at brief 
 intervals, turn most ungraciously and 
 even fiercely against, not only her own 
 husband and her own children, but 
 even against her own parents, and her 
 very dearest friends. She may cut 
 herself off from companionship and 
 correspondence with those who have 
 been her bosom companions all her 
 life. She may give expression to un- 
 kind and cruel speech and manifest an 
 unkind and vindictive spirit such as 
 she would not at any other period of 
 her life for one moment have enter- 
 tained. She may even threaten to 
 ruin her husband ; or the mother in- 
 stincts may temporarily be obliterated, 
 and she may manifest an uncontrol-
 
 276 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 lable desire to take the lives of her 
 children. 
 
 As we have already said, these are 
 not pleasing pictures, but they are, in 
 many instances, true to life. 
 
 It is during this period that many 
 families which have been held together 
 only by physical considerations go to 
 pieces. If ever in the history of the 
 family there needs to be harmony of 
 purpose and intellectual, social and 
 moral attractions to hold it together in 
 a time of storm and stress, it is at just 
 such a period as this. "Where the pre- 
 ceding years have been marked by true 
 affection and personal consideration, 
 the husband will find great satisfaction 
 in knowing that in all probability the 
 coming months, or at least a few years, 
 will relieve him from his present trials, 
 and bring to his wife that composure 
 and, peace which are even greater than 
 anything his earlier years have known. 
 
 At no other period in a woman's 
 life is she so liable to develop indica- 
 tions of insanity as during the period 
 of climacteric change. Too much
 
 3TAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 277 
 
 importance, however, can be attached 
 to such a statement, for statistics show 
 that between the ages of forty-five 
 to fifty-five, more men become insane 
 than women. It is the theory of phy- 
 sicians that as a rule, the climacteric 
 period simply affords the occasion, 
 rather than the cause of insanity ; 
 that it is the period when conditions 
 which have previously existed, for the 
 first time become clearly disclosed. 
 The stress and trial, it is believed by 
 many, simply make manifest weak- 
 nesses which have previously existed, 
 but may not have attracted particular 
 notice. 
 
 The forms of climacteric insanity 
 are : " Delirium, mania, hypochondria- 
 sis, melancholia, irresponsible impulses, 
 and the perversion of moral instincts." 
 
 At this period, women frequently 
 speak of " a strange feeling " in the 
 head which they experience ; but this 
 cannot be taken as any indication of 
 serious mental trouble. This is only 
 the temporary result of physical 
 changes which are taking place. Gen-
 
 278 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 uine symptoms of insanity are quite 
 another matter. 
 
 Dr. John B. Chapin, a man of large 
 experience in connection with his pro- 
 fessional duties at the Pennsylvania 
 Hospital for the Insane at Philadel- 
 phia, in an article in one of the current 
 medical journals says : " Clinical expe- 
 rience shows that the risk of insanity 
 at the menopause, while it is largely 
 exaggerated, is limited mainly to those 
 who have a neurotic or mental hered- 
 ity, and who, at the period of adoles- 
 cence or during the menstrual life, 
 have had attacks of insanity." 
 
 He further says that " both sexes 
 have the faculty of intelligence, sensory 
 endowments, emotions, will-power, and 
 memory. It is the change from the 
 ordinary and normal exercise of these 
 faculties which may arise from all of 
 the experiences of life that constitute 
 the condition, commonly called insan- 
 ity. Aside from some peculiarities 
 that are characteristic and distinguish 
 sex, insanity in man is similar to in- 
 sanity in woman, because it is the dis-
 
 31 AN OF FORTY- FIVE. 279 
 
 orderly action of mental faculties that 
 are common to both sexes." 
 
 He also states that insanity is gen- 
 erally induced by some lowered condi- 
 tion of the general bodily health, the 
 quantity and quality of the blood sent 
 to the brain, and the degeneration pro- 
 ceeding from trophic changes. 
 
 It is easy to understand how the 
 bodily health may be affected by the 
 physical changes which are likely to 
 attend the climacteric period. The 
 transition from the menstrual life, 
 which has been established for a long 
 period, to the new condition of the 
 menopause is likely to be attended by 
 changes in weight, sympathetic disturb- 
 ances, groundless fears, and even man- 
 ifestations of an unusual character, but 
 these need not of necessity arouse se- 
 rious apprehensions. A depleted 
 physical condition at any other period 
 of life, caused b} r anxiety, work, worry 
 or disease, would be likely to produce 
 the same results. If, under these con- 
 ditions, at other periods of life, there 
 are no reasons to fear insanity, then
 
 280 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 there would be no reason under similar 
 conditions to fear it at the period of 
 the menopause. The period of the 
 menopause is not an abnormal, or an 
 unnatural period, but is just as normal 
 and natural as the climacteric period 
 at the beginning of the menstrual life 
 of woman. Indeed, the statistics of 
 the Pennsylvania Hospital for the In- 
 sane show that between the ages of 
 fifteen and twenty, embracing the pe- 
 riod of the beginning of menstrual life 
 in women and the age of puberty in 
 men, the number of men admitted to 
 the hospital is slightly in excess of the 
 number of women admitted. Between 
 the ages of forty-five and fifty-five, 
 covering the usual period of the meno- 
 pause, and the changes which take 
 place in the physical life of man, the 
 number of men and women admitted, 
 to the hospital is as nine to eight. 
 This shows that during these physical 
 changes in the lives of men and 
 women, men are more likely to be- 
 come insane than women. This is pos- 
 sibly due to the financial stress, busi-
 
 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 281 
 
 ness anxieties, and various conditions 
 of special strain and perplexity which 
 are often experienced by men during 
 their period of physical change. 
 
 We have been thus careful in pre- 
 senting this matter so as to remove 
 groundless apprehensions of impend- 
 ing calamity at the period of the meno- 
 pause in woman. The stress and strain 
 which accompany this period in the 
 lives of most women are attended with 
 sufficient real and imaginary ills ; it is 
 therefore important that to these 
 should not be added any unnecessary 
 anxieties concerning disturbed mental 
 results. Dr. Chapin claims that 
 " there is no sufficient clinical experi- 
 ence to warrant the recognition of a 
 distinct class of insanities as due to the 
 normal ending of an animal function 
 that is universal." It is therefore wise 
 that there should be such a dissemina- 
 tion of these facts as will tend to re- 
 move the unfounded anxieties and 
 worries which attend so many women 
 as they look forward to and as they 
 approach this period of their lives.
 
 282 31 AN OF FOB TV- FIVE. 
 
 Where there are hereditary tenden- 
 cies, or where there are marked indi- 
 cations of insanity like deceit, cunning, 
 lying, violence and a tendency to 
 commit suicide or murder, or where 
 other decidedly disturbed mental con- 
 ditions manifest themselves, the case 
 will require the utmost consideration 
 and patience. No family would desire 
 to remove one of its members to an in- 
 stitution for the insane, so long as they 
 were tractable, were willing to take 
 their medicine, and submitted to treat- 
 ment designed to restore them to 
 mental health. 
 
 The ideas, however, which many 
 people entertain with regard to the 
 character of hospitals for the treatment 
 of the insane are altogether incorrect, 
 and their apprehensions in almost all 
 cases groundless. Mental sickness or 
 insanity, like physical sickness or in- 
 firmity, can oftentimes only be success- 
 fully treated in a hospital devoted to 
 the special care and cure of such dis- 
 eases. After some familiarity with in- 
 stitutions for the treatment of the
 
 31 AN OF FORTY-FIVE. '->:: 
 
 insane, I am thoroughly convinced 
 that if I had mental sickness, I should 
 prefer, by all means, to place myself 
 under the care of those who have the 
 largest experience and best equipment 
 for my relief and cure. 
 
 When thinking of an insane asylum, 
 some persons only have in mind the 
 wards where the violent and incurable 
 are confined. They do not think of the 
 wards with large and well-furnished 
 parlors, of the cultured and congenial 
 companionship, of the many means for 
 diversion, the ample grounds, pleasant 
 walks and favorable surroundings 
 which are so much better fitted to aid 
 in the recovery of those under treat- 
 ment than any conditions to be found 
 in the ordinary home. 
 
 Where the stress and strain attend- 
 ing the menopause have been pro- 
 nounced in their character, for some 
 months or even years there may be a 
 tendency to mental depression at the 
 return of the period corresponding 
 with the previous menstrual life, but 
 this tendency will gradually wear
 
 284 MAN OF FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 away, until it lias entirely disap- 
 peared. 
 
 After this period of stress and strain, 
 both physical and mental, is past, the 
 mind emerges from the mists into a 
 clear and sunny sky. The woman no 
 longer tortures herself with imaginary 
 woes ; self-poise and self-confidence re- 
 turn, and relieved from the periodic 
 infirmities which have attended her 
 earlier years, the woman enters upon a 
 period of serenity and repose, and even 
 of health and blessing such as, per- 
 chance, she has never before known. 
 "With the full consciousness of her ma- 
 ternal duties completed and well per- 
 formed, she is now prepared to bring 
 to others that intelligence, counsel, 
 encouragement and help which will 
 crown her declining years with a 
 saintly halo, more to be desired than 
 any of the pleasures which passion 
 affords. 
 
 
 THE END.
 
 OFFICES OF PUBLICATION 
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 THEVIR PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1601 Real Estate Trust Building 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA 
 
 IN ENGLAND 
 
 THE VIR PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 7 Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus 
 
 london, e. c 
 
 Price, 4^. 
 
 IN CANADA 
 
 WILLIAM BRIGGS 
 
 29-33 Richmond Street West 
 
 TORONTO, ONTARIO
 
 "What a Young Boy Ought 
 to Know." 
 
 CONDENSED TABLE OP CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 God's purpose in endowing plants, animals and man with 
 reproductive power — The question of the origin of life a 
 natural and proper one — Difference between creating and 
 making — How God now creates or reproduces the flowers, in- 
 sects, fishes and animals — The mamma and papa plants and 
 the baby plants — The mamma and papa nature in the stalk of 
 corn — The two natures united in the same flower — Separated 
 in other plants — The office of the wind and insects in fertiliz- 
 ing the flowers — The mamma and papa natures united in the 
 same oyster — The life of the baby oyster— The two natures 
 separated in the fishes — The eggs and the baby fishes — How 
 seeds are made to grow and how eggs are hatched — The beau- 
 tiful lives of parent birds — The bird's nest, the eggs and the 
 baby birds — Why the eggs of animals may not be exposed in 
 a nest — The nest which God has prepared for them — The 
 hatching of the egg, or the birth of the animal — The creation 
 of Adam and Eve — God endowed man with power similar to 
 his creative power — The purity of parentage. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 The manner in which the reproductive organs are injured in 
 boys by abuse — Comparative anatomy, or points of resem- 
 blance between bodies of birds, animals and man — Man the 
 only animal with a perfect hand — With the hand he constructs, 
 builds and blesses — With the hand he smites, slays and injures 
 others, and degrades himself. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 The consequences in boys of the abuse of the reproductive 
 organs — Need of proper information — The moral effects first to 
 manifest themselves — How secret sin affects the character of 
 boys — Effects upon the body and the nerves — Effects upon 
 the brain and mind— The physical effects that follow — The 
 boys and girls of to-day will determine the character of the 
 next generation, the nation and the world a hundred years 
 hence. 
 
 PARTS IV. and V. 
 
 How boys may preserve their bodies in purity and strength 
 -Our duty to aid others to avoid pernicious habits, and to 
 retain or regain their purity and strength. 
 
 PARTS VI. and VII. 
 
 How purity and strength may be measurably regained. — 
 The age of adolescence or puberty and its attendant changes 
 — The passage from boyhood to manhood — Its significance 
 and its dangers. 
 
 Price $1.00 net, post free.
 
 Pure Books on Avoided Subjects. 
 
 SELF AND SEX SERIES. 
 
 "What a Young BojJ Oughts to ^noto" 
 
 By SYLVANUS STALL, D.D. 
 
 For Boys Under Sixteen Years of Age« 
 
 WHAT EMINENT PEOPLE SAY: 
 
 THEODORE L. CUYLER, D.D. 
 
 " ' What a Young Boy Ought to Know ' ought to be in 
 every home where there is a boy. You deserve the thanka 
 of every parent in the land." 
 
 JOSEPH COOK, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 " It is everywhere suggestive, inspiring and strategic in a 
 degree, as I think, not hitherto matched in literature of its 
 class." 
 
 MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE, LL.D. 
 
 " I am glad to commend it. The short chapters, full of 
 physiological truths, which all children ought to know, at 
 a proper age, will be read by boys without awakening a 
 prurient thought." 
 
 MISS JESSIE A. ACKERMAN. 
 
 "Some means should be devised whereby the public 
 schools could place this book as a free gift in the hands of 
 every boy as a standard to a pure manhood." 
 
 JOHN WILLIS BAER. 
 
 " I feel confident that it can do great good, and I mean 
 that my boys shall have the contents placed before them."
 
 Commendations of " Young Boy " — Continued. 
 
 CHARLES L. THOMPSON, D.D. 
 
 "It is indeed what boys ought to know— the failure to 
 know which has been the cause of many sorrows and 
 pains and penalties. Why was not this book written cen- 
 turies ago?" 
 
 MRS. ALICE LEE MOQUE" . 
 
 "As a mother, with three growing boys of my own 
 resting on my heart, I bless you for your brave words of 
 warning and pray that the good seeds planted may take 
 root in the hearts of all your youthful readers. Ignorance 
 is a deadly sin. The truth properly told has never yet 
 harmed a child ; silence, false shame and mystery have 
 corrupted the souls and bodies of untold millions." 
 
 JOSIAH STRONG, D.D. 
 
 "A foolish and culpable silence on the part of most 
 parents leaves their children to learn, too often from 
 vicious companions, sacred truth in an unhallowed way. 
 Your book is most reverent and will inspire reverence." 
 
 MRS. KATE W. BARRETT, M.D.,D.Sc. 
 
 "I have been studying methods and means, looking 
 to the bringing about of such an understanding of the sex 
 question as is portrayed in Dr. Stall's book, for the past 
 twenty-one years, and I unhesitatingly say, that he seems 
 to me to have gotten more nearly to the object aimed at, 
 which is to make a boy feel the responsibility of the poten- 
 tiality of the father within him, than any other person 
 I know." 
 
 BISHOP JOHN H. VINCENT, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 "You have handled with great delicacy and wisdom an 
 exceedingly difficult subject. Your work has been well 
 done." 
 
 EDWARD W. BOK. 
 
 " It has appealed to me in a way which no other book 
 of its kind has. Other books have told other things, but 
 you have compassed the whole subject." 
 
 PRICE, $1.00 NET, POST FREE.
 
 "What a Young Man Ought 
 to Know." 
 
 CONDENSED TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 STRENGTH. 
 
 The valueof physical strength — The weak man handicapped 
 — Three-fold nature of man — Relation of the physical, intel- 
 lectual and moral — Impair one, you injure all — The physical 
 foundation — Man's strong sexual nature — Sex uality strongly 
 marked in all great men — Importance of manly mastery of 
 sexual nature — Personal purity — Only one moral standard for 
 men and women. 
 
 WEAKNESS. 
 
 Inherited weakness — How overcome — Acquired weakness — 
 How produced — The effects of secret vice — What should be 
 done — Losses in sleep — When to consult a physician — Dan- 
 ger from quacks and charlatans — What are normal and ab- 
 normal losses — Medical authorities quoted — Subject illus- 
 trated — Important directions. 
 
 SOCIAL VICE. 
 
 Alarming ignorance concerning the diseases which accom- 
 pany vice — Why physicians do not acquaint their patient3 
 with the nature of these diseases — Their prevalence — All 
 forms of venereal disease leave terrible results — Character 
 and consequences of gonorrhoea — Later complications — Chor- 
 dee, stricture, blindness, etc. — How healthy brides become 
 early and permanent invalids — Chancroid and chancre — The 
 primary, secondary and tertiary forms of syphilis — The be- 
 ginning, progress and end — Can it ever be cured — May the 
 man ever marry — Effects upon wife and children. 
 
 THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. 
 
 Their purpose and prostitution — Marriage a great blessing 
 — Difference between creation and procreation — All life from 
 the seed or the egg — The reproduction of plants, fishes, birds 
 and animals contrasted — An interesting study. 
 
 MAN'S RELATION TO WOMAN. 
 
 Importance of a right relation to women — The nature of 
 marriage — The friends and foes of marriage — Who should not 
 marry — The selection of a wife — Some general rules — Import- 
 ance of great caution — Causes of unhappiness in married life 
 — Early and late marriages. 
 
 HINDRANCES AND HELPS. 
 
 The choice of companions, books, pictures, amusement, 
 recreations — Liquors and tobacco — Self-mastery — Right aim 
 in life — Industry, early rising — The influence of an ennobling 
 affection — Education — The Sabbath, the Church, and the 
 Bible. 
 
 Price $1.00 net, per copy, post free.
 
 "What a Young fl[an Ought to J[noW 
 
 By SYLVANUS STALL, D.D. 
 
 WHAT EMINENT PEOPLE SAY: 
 FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.D., 
 
 FOUNDER OF THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR SOCIETY, SAYS: 
 
 "Of exceeding value to every youth just entering upon 
 manhood. It is written reverently but very plainly, and I 
 believe will save a multitude of young men from evilfl 
 unspeakable.' ' 
 
 ETHELBERT D. WARFIELD, L.L.D., 
 
 PRESIDENT OP LAFAYETTE COLLEGE, SAYS : 
 
 " I have examined with great interest and satisfaction 
 the book, ' What a Young Man Ought to Know.' The 
 6ubject is one of the utmost personal and social import- 
 ance, and hitherto has not been treated, so far as I am 
 aware, in such a way as to merit the commendation of the 
 Christian public." 
 
 J. WILBUR CHAPMAN, D.D., 
 
 THE EMINENT EVANGELIST, SAYS : 
 
 " I bear willing testimony that I believe this book ought 
 to be in the hands of every young man in this country." 
 
 PAUL F. MUNDE, M.D., LL.D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF GYNECOLOGY IN THE NEW YORK POLY- 
 CLINIC AND AT DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, SAYS: 
 
 " I most heartily commend not only the principle but the 
 execution of what it aims to teach. It is a relief to see the 
 question so well handled." 
 
 EUGENE H. PORTER, M.D., 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THB 
 STATE OF NEW YORK; PROFESSOR MATERIA MEDICA, NEW 
 YORK HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE, ETC., SAYS : 
 
 "We should especially commend the volume for Ita 
 reliability in statement, and, as a medical man, I highly 
 indorse the medical teachings of the book. It is trust- 
 worthy and sound. It is a work which should be in the 
 hands of every young man."
 
 Commendations of "Young Man" — Continued. 
 
 EDWARD BROOKS, LL.D., 
 
 IUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PHILAD'A, 8AY3: 
 
 * You have treated a delicate subject with great delicacy 
 o> thought and expression, and at the same time have 
 pt^jented practical information of inestimable value to 
 whb youth of the country." 
 
 FREDERICK L. CHAPMAN, 
 
 EDITOR OF "THE RAM'S HORN," SAYS i 
 
 " We venture to say that the personally secret life of 
 men has never been handled more delicately, chastely, 
 convincingly, or with more ennobling force, than is done 
 in this book." 
 
 FRANK W. OBER, 
 
 EDITOR OF " MEN," THE INTERNATIONAL PAPER OP 
 THE Y. M. C A. 
 
 " I have not only carefully examined the book myself, 
 but have submitted it to a competent physician, who has 
 for years received the freest confidence of young men. 
 The chapters on ' The Choice of a Wife' and on ' Marriage' 
 are especially timely. I take pleasure in commending the 
 book heartily and unqualifiedly to young men. It will 
 save many a young fellow from the blast and blight of a 
 befouled manhood, wrecked by the wretched blunderings 
 of an ignorant youth." 
 
 PRESS NOTICES. 
 
 " One of the best treatises of the sort ever published." 
 —Congrrgationalist. 
 
 "We find nothing from which to dissent, but much to 
 commend. The chapters on marriage are specially to be 
 commended." — Journal of the American Medical Association. 
 
 "The day has come for plain, delicate, but truthful 
 words on subjects treated in this book." — Christian Guide. 
 
 " Every man between the ages of 18 and 40 ought to 
 read this book."— Lutheran Leader. 
 
 "The dissemination of such information as this book 
 contains will save multitudes of men from paths of vice 
 and ruin."— Christian Advocate. 
 
 PRICE, $1.00 NET, POST FREE.
 
 What a Young Husband Ought 
 to Know* 
 
 BY SYLVANUS STALL, D.D. 
 
 CONDENSED TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 What He Ought to Know Concerning Himself. 
 The true foundation for happiness in married life — Physical, 
 intellectual and sexual differences between men and women — 
 Each complemental to the other, and complete only when 
 mated — The three theories regarding coition — The correct 
 theory — The physical cost of procreation — Illustrated in in- 
 sects, animals and man — What is excess — Effects of marital 
 continence — The husband's duty to his wife — Physical defects 
 and deficiencies of husband or wife— Misery entailed by vice 
 in earlier years — Effects upon wife — Upon children — Purity 
 and fidelity. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 What He Ought to Know Concerning His Wife. 
 i. the bride. 
 
 Marriage the most trying event in a woman's life — Earliest 
 mistake which most young husbands make — Few intelligent 
 guardians of their brides — Threefold classification of women 
 — Causes of differences — Wedding joy — The wave cannot re- 
 main at its crest. 
 
 II. the wife. 
 
 Her manifold duties as wife, mother and housekeeper — God 
 has fitted her for her sphere — The mother-nature — Barrenness 
 and sterility — Physical, social, intellectual and moral benefits 
 of motherhood and fatherhood — Aversion and evasion — God's 
 purpose in marriage — Limitation of offspring — Marital excess 
 — The wrongs which wives suffer because of ignorant and un- 
 thinking husbands — Repellent periods in the life of woman, 
 in. the mother. 
 
 Purposed and prepared parenthood — Conception — The mar- 
 vels of foetal life and growth — Changes during the months of 
 gestation — The husband's duty to wife and offspring — What 
 the wife has a ri^lit to expect before and during confinement 
 — Ignorant, unthinking and unsympathetic husbands — The 
 child in the home — Keal life and genuine happiness — The 
 mother while nursing — Protection of child from impure nurses. 
 
 PART III. 
 What He Ought to Know Concerning His Children. 
 Heredity — Prenatal influences — Physical conditionsprior to 
 and at conception — Stirpiculture — Essentials of seed, soil and 
 care — "Longings," markings, etc. — Can sex of offspring be 
 governed — Cause of idiocy — Blindness, etc. — The right to be 
 well-born — Parental discipline during first two years — Duties 
 during childhood — Nursery influences — Honest answers to 
 honest inquiries — How to secure purity in thought and life of 
 children — Dangers at the age of puberty — Child-companions 
 and child-loves — The physical, intellectual and moral culture 
 of children. 
 
 Price $1.00 net, post free.
 
 " Wh.at a Young Husband Ought to Know" 
 BY SYLVANUS STALL, D.D. 
 
 WHAT EMINENT PEOPLE SAY : 
 CHAS. M. SHELDON, D.D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "IN HIS STEPS," "MY BROTHER'S KEEPER," 
 ETC., ETC., TOPEKA, KANS. 
 
 " I hope its message may be used for the bettering of 
 the homes of the world." 
 
 FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.D., 
 
 FOUNDER OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN 
 ENDEAVOR, AND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED SOCIETY. 
 
 "I regard Dr. Stall's latest book as equal to the others 
 in its uclicate but plain-spoken chapters concerning the 
 facts the men to whom it is addressed ought to know." 
 
 REV. A. C. DIXON, D.D., 
 
 PASTOR OF HANSON PLACE BAPTIST CHURCH, BROOK- 
 LYN, N. Y. 
 
 " I take pleasure in commending it to husbands, young 
 and old. The vice of ignorance on these delicate but im- 
 portant subjects has done much to increase the business 
 of divorce courts and wreck homes." 
 
 EUGENE H. PORTER, M.A., M.D., 
 
 PROFESSOR MATERIA MEDICA, NEW YORK HOMCEOPATHIC 
 MEDICAL COLLEGE; PROFESSOR DISEASES OF STOMACH 
 AND LIVER, METROPOLITAN POST-GRADUATE SCHOOL; 
 AUTHOR OF MANY STANDARD MEDICAL WORKS, AND 
 EDITOR OF NORTH AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HOMUSOPATHY 
 
 " It should be in the hands of every young man who 
 contemplates marriage. It is a sound and practical vol- 
 ume, and deserves a wide circulation." 
 
 H. J. BOLDT, M.D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF GYNECOLOGY, NEW YORK POST-GRADUATE 
 MEDICAL SCHOOL AND HOSPITAL; GYNECOLOGIST TO ST 
 MARK'S HOSPITAL; GYNECOLOGIST TO THE GERMAN POL1- 
 KLINIK. 
 
 " Its possession, and following it in practice by young 
 husbands, would be conducive to a purer life and more 
 happiness."
 
 Commendations of "Young Husband"— Continued. 
 
 AMOS R. WELLS, 
 
 MANAGING EDITOR OF "CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR WORLD." 
 
 " The race would be infinitely stronger In body and soul 
 if all husbands would obtain this book and follow its 
 precepts." 
 
 CHAS. L. THOMPSON, D.D., 
 
 SECRETARY BOARD OF HOME MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTE- 
 RIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 " Characterized by the same purity of tone, wise pre- 
 sentation of important facts and high Christian purpose 
 which have made so attractive and useful the other books 
 of the series." 
 
 REV. CHAS. R. ERDMAN, 
 
 PASTOR OF FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, GERMANTOWN.PA. 
 
 " I most heartily congratulate you upon the successful 
 accomplishment of so difficult and delicate a task in the 
 sacred interests of the home." 
 
 MRS. ALICE LEE MOQUE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "WOMAN: HER HEART, SOUL AND BODY;" 
 JOURNALIST AND PHILANTHROPIST. 
 
 " A book that can be profitably read by all husbands." 
 JOSIAH STRONG, D.D., 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE LEAGUE FOR SOCIAL SERVICE. 
 
 " It will enable many young husbands to learn what 
 they ought to know without paying the high tuition fee 
 exacted in the school of experience." 
 
 HON. S. M. JONES, 
 
 MAYOR OF TOLEDO, OHIO. 
 
 " I am glad to say that my study of it indicates that you 
 have been led by a pure love for your kind to write one 
 of the most helpful and valuable books that it has been 
 my privilege to see in many days." 
 
 Price $1.00, Post Free.
 
 What a Young Girl Ought 
 to Know. 
 
 BY MRS. MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M.D. 
 CONDENSED TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 The origin of life — One plan in ali forms of life — How plants 
 grow from the seed — They feed on the soil, grow and mature 
 — How the plant reproduces itself — The flower, the pollen, the 
 pod, the seed — The office of bees and insects in fertilization. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Fishes and their young — The parent fishes and the baby 
 fishes — The seeds of plants and eggs of fishes, birds and ani- 
 mals — How fishes never know their baby offspring — Warm- 
 blooded animals — Lessons from the birds — Their nests, eggs 
 and little ones. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Animals and their young — The place which God has pre- 
 pared for their young — Beginning their independent life — 
 Human babies the most helpless and dependent of all creatures 
 — The relations of parent and child— The child a part of each 
 parent — Heredity and its lessons. 
 
 PART IV. 
 The value of good health — The care of the body — The body 
 a temple to be kept holy — Girls should receive their instruction 
 from their mothers — The body the garment which the soul 
 wears — Effects of thoughts upon life and character — Value of 
 good companions, good books and good influences — What it 
 is to become a woman. 
 
 Price $1.00 net, post free.
 
 "Iflftot a Young [{M Ought to ^nolw ■ 
 
 By MRS. MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M.D. 
 
 Superintendent of the Purity Department, W. C. T. U. Authot 
 
 of tk The Man Wonderful in the House Beautiful," 
 
 " Marvels of Our Bodily Dwelling," " Child 
 
 Confidence Rewarded" " Teaching 
 
 Truth? "Almost a Man;' 
 
 "Almost a Woman." 
 
 For Girls Under Sixteen Years of Age. 
 
 WHAT EMINENT PEOPLE SAY: 
 FRANCES E. WILLARD, LL.D., 
 
 LATE PRESIDENT WORLD'S AND NATIONAL WOMEN'S 
 CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION. 
 
 " I do earnestly hope that this book, founded on a strictly 
 scientific but not forgetting a strong ethical basis, may be 
 well known and widely read by the dear girls in their 
 teens and the young women in their homes." 
 
 MRS. ELIZABETH B. GRANNIS, 
 
 PRESIDENT NATIONAL CHRISTIAN LEAGUE FOR THE PROMO- 
 TION OF SOCIAL PURITY. 
 
 "These facts ought to be judiciously brought to the 
 intelligence of every child whenever it asks questions 
 concerning its own origin. I have greatly enjoyed the 
 simplicity of the statements and illustrations." 
 
 MRS. EMILY D. BOUTON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " HEALTH AND BEAUTY," " LIFE'S GATEWAYS 
 AND HOW TO WIN REAL SUCCESS," ETC., ETC. 
 
 " No words are too strong to use in expressing my appre- 
 ciation of its excellence." 
 
 MRS. HARRIET LINCOLN COOLIDGE, 
 
 EDITOR OF " TRAINED MOTHERHOOD ;" AUTHOR OF " TALKS 
 TO MOTHERS," " THE MODEL NURSERY," ETC., ETC. 
 
 "It is a book that mothers and daughters ought to own, 
 and mothers who do not understand the best way to instruct 
 their girls in the proper care of the body, will find it clearly 
 shown in this little volume."
 
 Commendations of " Young Girl " — Continued. 
 
 MRS. KATHARINE L. STEVENSON, 
 
 CORRESPONDING SECRETARY NATIONAL W. C. T. U. 
 
 " The book is strong, direct, pure, as healthy as a breeza 
 from the mountain-top. It cannot fail to bring inspiration 
 and a new ideal of life to the young girl who may read it. 
 It is a book which any mother may safely put into the 
 hands of her daughter." 
 
 MRS. ISABELLA MACDONALD ALDEN, 
 
 "PANSEY," THE EMINENT AITIIOR AND WRITER. 
 
 "'What a Young Girl Ought to Know' is a book that 
 mothers cannot afford to be without. It is just the book 
 needed to teach what most people do not know how to 
 teach, being scientific yet simple and plain-spoken, yet 
 delicate. 'Blessed are the pure in heart,' said the Master; 
 and blessed must they be who enforce this teaching." 
 
 MRS. E. M. WHITTEMORE, 
 
 FOUNDER OF THE DOOR OF HOPE. 
 
 " May God bless this book to young mothers in aiding 
 them to more fully realize their solemn responsibility in 
 the training of their children, and in like purity enable 
 them thus to unfold all necessary knowledge pertaining 
 to that which naturally appears so mysterious to the mind 
 of a child. By so doing God will be honored and the 
 little ones spared later on from receiving erroneous and 
 evil impressions from associates, which so repeatedly 
 result in such disastrous experiences and sorrow." 
 
 MISS GRACE H. DODGE, 
 
 THE PHILANTHROPIST. 
 
 "They are just what are needed for many to use for the 
 young people in their care. Dr. Mary Wood- Allen I have 
 long known and have myself learned great lessons from 
 her. I know of no one who writes or speaks on these 
 great subjects with more womanly touch, nor with deeper 
 reverence. When I listen to her I feel that she has been 
 inspired by a Higher Power." 
 
 PRICE, $1.00 NET, POST FREE. 
 
 Address all Orders to 
 
 THE VIR PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 Full address on first advertising page.
 
 What a Young Woman Ought 
 to Know. 
 
 : -.'•-. :: -al.:_zv, :: r. 
 
 pakt : 
 
 :::; : :r-: .- - -±z- 
 : .-t i :_ 1 _ — " - . - - r - : 
 
 part :::. 
 
 Pj-i-c* Sl.OO net 3 post fr*e-
 
 11 W hat a Young Woman Ought to Know" 
 
 BY MRS. MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M.D. 
 
 WHAT EMINENT PEOPLE SAY: 
 
 MARGARET WARNER MORLEY. 
 
 " The series of books to which this belongs is one of the 
 best signs of the age. There is an awful need for the 
 book, and it does what it has undertaken to do better 
 than anything of the kind I have ever read." 
 
 MRS. MAY WRIGHT SEWALL. 
 
 " I am profoundly grateful that a subject of such in- 
 formation to young women should be treated in a man- 
 ner at once so noble and so delicate that any pure-minded 
 teacher or mother may read or discuss its pages with 
 young girls without the slightest chance of wounding the 
 most delicate sensibilities, or by being misunderstood." 
 
 MRS. MARY LOWE DICKINSON. 
 
 "Any young woman knowing all that this volume 
 teaches, has an essential foundation for whatever other 
 knowledge she may acquire." 
 
 ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. 
 
 " It is a grave mistake for parents to try to keep their 
 children ignorant of the very questions on which they 
 should have scientific information. The many facts you 
 state are not only important for a knowledge of social 
 science, but involve good health and morals." 
 
 LILLIAN M. N. STEVENS. 
 
 " There is great need of carefully, delicately written 
 books upon the subjects treated of in this series. lam 
 gratefully glad that the author has succeeded so well, 
 and I trust great and enduring good will be the result."
 
 Commendations of "Young Woman "-Cob/mW. 
 
 HELEN CAMPBELL. 
 
 "I cannot speak too warmly of your invaluable series. 
 There is hardly a woman in America so thoroughly qual- 
 ified by education, long experience, deep sympathies, 
 and, most excellent of all gifts, as deep common sense, 
 to meet the growing need, or rather the growing sense of 
 need." 
 
 CHARLES N. CRITTENTON. 
 
 " The frequent excuse which parents give for not en- 
 lightening their children on these most important points 
 is that they have never known how to do so. This 
 excuse can no longer be considered valid. Armed with 
 Dr. Mary Wood-Allen's ' What a Young Woman Ought to 
 Know,' and Dr. Sylvanus Stall's ' What a Young M.m 
 Ought to Know,' they will be able to guide their children 
 over the dangerous period of puberty. The most delicate 
 subjects are handled with scientific thoroughness and 
 exquisite delicacy." 
 
 ELISABETH ROBINSON SCOVIL. 
 
 "'What a Young Woman Ought to Know' is char- 
 acterized by that purity of tone and delicay of treatment 
 which distinguishes all the books written by Dr. Mary 
 Wood-Allen." 
 
 MRS. MATILDA B. CARSE. 
 
 " As a mother I can truly say that my heart goes out 
 to you in endorsement of this book. It is pure and in- 
 structive on the delicate subjects that mean so much to 
 our daughters, to their future as homekeepers, wives 
 and mothers, and to the future generations. It can but 
 create a more reverent ideal of life in every girl who 
 reads it, and I wish every daughter in the land could 
 leap of its benefit." 
 
 MARY EVANS. 
 
 " The author has shown tact and good sense in blend- 
 ing instruction upon the special facts of womanhood with 
 the general rules of r ight living."
 
 WHAT A YOUNG WIFE 
 
 OUGHT TO KNOW 
 
 By MRS. EMMA F. A. DRAKE, M.D. 
 
 Condensed Table of Contents 
 
 Husband and Home. 
 
 The choice of a husband — One worthy of both love and re- 
 spect—Real characteristics necessary— Purity vs. "wild oats" 
 —What shall a young wife expect to be to her husband ?— His 
 equal, but not his counterpart— His helpmeet— Wifehood and 
 motherhood— Should keep pace with his mental growth— Trous- 
 seau and wedding presents— The foolish and ruinous display at 
 weddings— Wedding presents and unhappiness — Wise choice of 
 furniture — The best adornments for the home. 
 The Marital Relations. 
 
 The marital state should be the most holy of sanctuaries- 
 Its influence upon character — Modesty— Reproduction the primal 
 purpose— Love's highest plane— The right and wrong of mar- 
 riage — The wrongdoings of good men. 
 Parenthood. 
 
 Preparation for motherhood— Motherhood the glory of wom- 
 anhood— Maternity productive of health— Clothing— Exerciser- 
 Baths, etc., etc. — The child the expression of the mother's 
 thoughts — The five stages of prenatal culture. 
 Preparation for Fatherhood. 
 
 Questions which test the fitness of young men for marriage 
 
 Many young men of startling worth — Effects of bad morals 
 
 and wayward habits — Tobacco and alcoholics — Attaining the best 
 — The father reproduced in his children. 
 
 Antenatal Infanticide. 
 
 The moral responsibility of parents in heredity — The mother's 
 investment of moulding power— Parents workers together with 
 God— Ailments during expectant motherhood— Maternity a 
 normal state — Development of the fcetus— Minuteness of the 
 germ of human life— Changes which take place— Life present 
 the moment conception takes place— The sin of tampering with 
 the work of the Infinite. 
 
 The Little One. 
 
 Baby's wardrobe— The question that comes with fluttering 
 signs of life— Importance of wise choice of material and style 
 of dress — Choice of physician and nurse of real consequence — 
 The birth chamber— Surroundings and after-care of the mother 
 — The care of the baby— The responsibilities and joys of mother- 
 hood—The mother the baby's teacher— Common ailments of 
 children and how to treat them— Guarding against vice— The 
 training of children— Body-building— Helps for mothers. 
 
 Price $1.00 net, post free.
 
 BOO^S 
 
 BY 
 
 ■■■■miiE'iHn. 
 
 Sylvanus Stall, D.D. 
 
 Five-Minute Object Sermons to Children. 
 
 " Far better than Newton's, the anecdotes and subjects of 
 which have long since become common property. Many of the 
 subjects are very fresh and telling." — New York Evangelist. 
 
 Cloth, 253 pp. Price, $1.00, post free. 
 
 Talks to the King's Children. 
 
 " The Rev. Dr. Sylvanus Stall is one of the best preachers 
 for young people in the American pulpit. His ' Five-Minute 
 Object Sermons ' to children was an ideal book in its class. The 
 present volume is a second series of the same kind, and will be 
 found to have no less point and charm than the volume pub- 
 lished two years ago." — New York Independent. 
 
 Cloth, 249 pp. Price, $1.00, post free. 
 
 Methods of Church Work. 
 
 "It is stimulating, helpful, worth its weight in gold to any 
 minister who wishes to accomplish anything for the kingdom 
 of Christ." — New York Christian Intelligencer. 
 
 Cloth, 304 pp. Price, $1.50, post free. 
 
 Bible Selections for Daily Devotion. 
 
 The most spiritual and helpful portions of the entire Bible 
 arranged in the order of the original text. Comprises about 
 one-third of the whole Bible. 
 
 Christian Advocate, Pittsburg: "That there has been a 
 preat falling off in the good old custom of daily family worship, 
 there can be no doubt. Just how much of this deplorable con- 
 dition is due to the difficulty of hastily selecting Scriptural pas- 
 sages suited to the service, it might be difficult to determine. 
 Hut fully persuaded that this is an obstacle of considerable mo- 
 ment, Dr. Stall, after some three years' work, has selected a 
 series of 365 devotional readings from Genesis to Revelation." 
 
 Full flexible morocco, divinity circuit, gold on red edges, price, 
 #2.50. Cloth, i2mo., 686 pages. Price, gi.oo, post free. 
 
 Pastor's Pocket Record. 
 
 (Undenominational.) 
 " Its departments cover everything a minister wishes to 
 record."— IV. F. Crafts, D.D. 
 
 20 Departments. 184 pp., Levant morocco. Price, 75 cents. 
 
 ADDRESS ALL ORDERS TO 
 
 THE VIR PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 Full address on first advertising page.
 
 Mrs. Mary Wood-Allen, M.D. 
 
 " Marvels of Our Bodily Dwelling." 
 
 This book teaches the young Physiology and Hygiene, by 
 metaphor, parable, and allegory in a most charming way. For 
 use in the school and the home. i2mo., cloth, 275 pp., #1.10, 
 post free. 
 
 "The Birth Chamber." 
 
 A supplementary chapter to the " Marvels of Our Bodily 
 Dwelling." It contains the scientific facts of special physi- 
 ology, written in Dr. Mary Wood-Allen's own delicate style of 
 teaching the important truths concerning the origin of life. 
 Price, 10 cents, post free. 
 
 " Child Confidence Rewarded." 
 
 Designed to aid mothers in guiding the first outgoings of the 
 child-mind concerning the origin of life, so as to preserve the 
 coming men and women in truth and purity. Price, 10 cents, 
 post free. 
 
 "Teaching Truth." 
 
 Addressed to mothers, and designed to teach more exalted 
 ideas concerning God's great gift of fatherhood and mother- 
 hood. Its sweet purity is like the breath of a May morning. 
 Price, 25 cents, post free. 
 
 "Almost a Man." 
 
 Very valuable to mothers, teachers, and all who have to do 
 ■with boys of twelve and fourteen years of age. It will prove a 
 blessing and a help to all who read it. Price, 25 cents, post 
 free. 
 
 "Almost a Woman." 
 
 Girls have long been wanting a book written by Dr. Wood- 
 Allen to correspond with the one by the same author for Boys. 
 This booklet meets this demand. Mothers will fiud this just 
 what they have been wanting to put into the hands of their 
 daughters. Price, 25 cents, post free. 
 
 "Baby's Firsts." 
 
 A valuable book on the physical care of the babe from the time 
 of its arrival to the beginning of the second year. It is a boon to 
 the mother of moderate means, as it tells how to make many of the 
 Bmal! things which add to the baby's comfort at small cost. Price, 
 35 cents, post free.
 
 OFFICES OF PUBLICATION 
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 THE VIR PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 1601 Real Estate Trust Building 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA 
 
 IN ENGLAND 
 
 THE VIR PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 7 Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus 
 
 LONDON, E. C 
 
 Price, 4s. 
 
 IN CANADA 
 
 WILLIAM BRIGGS 
 
 39-33 Richmond Street West 
 
 TORONTO, ONTARIO 

 
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 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
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